(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Abu Dhabi is becoming a sandbox for the world to test autonomous and other new-age technologies, said Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, chairman of Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), on Monday (November 10).

“We're going to sign, over the next few days, 13 agreements on commercial pilots, and more will come. Those commercial agreements are important, and the speed at which we actually do our part is very important. We're not going to wait. Abu Dhabi is becoming the sandbox of the world. This is exactly what Abu Dhabi is today. It is a sandbox to the world on everything that people want to do things in,” Al Zaabi said during a panel discussion at the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Week 2025.

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A sandbox is a controlled environment for testing or running new code or applications without affecting the host system. As the startup ecosystem is expanding exponentially in Abu Dhabi and across the UAE, the role of the sandbox is growing as well.

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“It's not only smart and autonomous vehicles that we're focusing on. There's 13 clusters that we're going to invest in double down. Smart and autonomous vehicles are one of the most important clusters. It brings technology, talent, and robotics into it to a different level. Autonomous sector is going to be a core sector, not only in mobility, but also in other elements like manufacturing,” Al Zaabi added.

The UAE capital aims to have 25 per cent of all its trips to be autonomous by 2040.

Part of diversification efforts

He pointed out that these diversification efforts have led to Abu Dhabi's economy reducing its dependency and contribution of oil to the overall GDP contribution.

“This (launch of clusters) is part of the diversification efforts that we're working on. Once upon a time, the economy of Abu Dhabi was 20 per cent non-oil and 80 per cent oil. Today, we've turned that pyramid. We've tilted it. Now, in the last quarter, we've scored 57 per cent of non-oil and 43 per cent oil,” he said.

Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, chairman of the Department of Municipalities & Transport – Abu Dhabi, also attended the panel discussion.

“If you want to be at the forefront of everything, you need to be able to take risks, but at the same time, you need to be wise enough to understand how do you manage that risk. And this is where we are today, and this is what we believe is going to be a major part in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, leading, going forward,” said Al Zaabi.

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