The Smart and Autonomous Vehicle Industries (Savi) Cluster in Abu Dhabi will create 40,000 highly skilled jobs in key strategic sectors over the coming two decades.

Launched by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (Adio), Savi caters to mobility solutions, spanning autonomous vehicles, eVTOL aircraft, maritime systems, and robotics.

“Savi cluster has a great contribution to the GDP of the emirate. By 2045, our cluster is projected to contribute around Dh44 billion and create 40,000 jobs, covering all domains such as air, land, and sea. We've added robotics as well, as we've seen the potential in these sectors,” said Ali Al Musawa AlHashmi, Savi cluster specialist at Adio.

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“The cluster will create highly skilled employment opportunities across the entire value chain, starting from research and development to prototyping, testing the (autonomous) vehicles, and then the components that go into the serial production of these vehicles. Afterwards, we have the manufacturing domain, and then you move on to deployment and operations and maintenance and everything that comes after,” AlHashmi told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Summit 2025 took place in the UAE capital on Monday.

AlHashmi added that Savi has signed partnerships to launch 29 commercial projects in Abu Dhabi and key sectors.“One of them is the cargo and logistics domain. So, these partnerships will enable the technologies that are used to be prototypes, testing, and development into real applications in our daily lives.”

Dozens of senior public and private sector officials from autonomous vehicles, drones, eVTOL, and other new mode of transports took part in the summit while local and international companies showcased their solutions.

For Abu Dhabi, new highly advanced industries will be major contributors towards its economy and job creations as the government is pumping billions of dirhams into these projects, as well as attracting foreign direct investment in these industries.

Moreover, Abu Dhabi and the UAE are also pushing to make the economy knowledge-based to drive the next cycle of growth.

AlHashmi noted that Savi is building an ecosystem that caters to each single part of the value chain.“For startups, for example, we have Hub 71 to accommodate and incubate them in advancing their businesses and the research and development. We have the Advanced Technology Research Council and Mohammed bin Zayed University for AI for the research and development that goes into the smart autonomous systems,” he said during the interview.

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