Dubai Reveals New 15Km Self-Driving Zone For Land, Water Travel

An expansive 15-kilometre area will be dedicated as Dubai Autonomous Zone that will redefine how people travel, as they will be able to move between destinations using fully automated vehicles by land and water.

This was revealed on Wednesday at Dubai World Congress and Challenge for Self-Driving Transport, organised by Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

Dubai Autonomous Zone is crucial for integrating self-driving transport into existing urban mobility, moving towards Dubai's goal of having 25 per cent of transportation smart and driverless by 2030.

Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the two-day event, Ahmed Bahrozyan, CEO of RTA's Public Transport Agency, said:“The Dubai Autonomous Zone is a look into the future of mobility in Dubai, where you will be able to move around (the dedicated zone) using multiple autonomous vehicles – whether it's a taxi, shuttle bus, abra or marine transport, and of course, Dubai Metro. Everything will be connected while using autonomous transport – even the vehicle used for sweeping the road will be driverless.

The Dubai Autonomous Zone (DAZ) will cover the area around Creek Station on Dubai Metro Green Line, located in Al Jaddaf, extending towards Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai Festival City.

“The idea is that when you are within DAZ, you get there using the Metro (which is driverless), you hop off at Creek Station, then you have two options whether you go to Dubai Festival City or Dubai Creek Harbour using an autonomous abra, then you go down and take a self-driving shuttle bus to your destination,” Bahrozyan explained.

Khaled Al Awadhi, director of transportation systems at RTA's public transport agency, told Khaleej Times DAZ will cover an area stretching 15 kilometres.“The idea for DAZ is to have a model area within Dubai where you will have seven autonomous modes of transport seamlessly integrated,” he added.

These self-driving mode of public transport are Dubai Metro, RoboTaxi, RoboBus, autonomous abra, self-driving shuttle, as well as driverless logistics vehicles, and autonomous sweepers.“The specialised street sweeper vehicle will be operated by Dubai Municipality to clean and maintain the cleanliness of streets,” Al Awadhi added.

The driverless Dubai Metro has long been operational. Among the other self-driving vehicles, RoboTaxis will be rolled out to the public within DAZ in the first quarter next year, according to Al Awadhi.

He added:“We will start gradually next year introducing the RoboTax service, then we will increase the coverage to other modes of autonomous until all seven of them will be completely operational by middle of 2027.”

“Then after that, we will expand to other areas. We will start at DAZ and replicate the same in other areas,” Al Awadhi continued.

Currently, there are three companies collaborating with RTA for the driverless taxi: Pony, WeRide, and Apollo Go (Baidu). These companies have acquired the certificate to conduct road tests along Jumeirah Road and Umm Suqeim area, and at some point they will receive the operational license, Bahrozyan confirmed, adding:“We hope to actually start commercial service by next year.”

“The self-driving taxi is progressing very well, and we are very happy about that,” added Bahrozyan, noting:“We are also working on (RoboBuses), as well as self-driving shuttle buses.

“We are looking into the future of mobility now. Soon, we will be able to move around in an area where we have multiple modes of transport that are all autonomous,” Bahrozyan assured.

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