Driverless cars to hit Dubai streets by 2030

The news that driverless taxis have begun picking up passengers in Singapore has starkly highlighted the fact that driverless vehicles - whether they be cabs or other public transport - are here to stay, and UAE officials say the country is well ahead of the curve.
In Singapore, some members of the public are now able use their smart phones to hail a driverless ride on taxis - six at the moment - operated by nuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle software startup.
Locally, driverless vehicles are already helping ferry people around Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, which His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, tried out during a recent visit. Dubai officials, however, say they have much more far-reaching plans than those currently being rolled out in Singapore.
In April of this year His Highness Shaikh Mohammed, announced that by 2030, 25 percent of vehicles in the Dubai will be driverless, which he said would put the emirate at the forefront of similar technologies in the future.
''Dubai is leading cities of the world and making a qualitative paradigm shift to harness artificial intelligence in the service of the humanity and set a world unparalleled model for future cities," he noted.
Aside from eliminating much of the hassle and potentially disastrous consequences of human error inherent to driving, Shaikh Mohammed noted that driverless vehicles also will also have a significant impact on the economy and the daily lives of residents, by saving Dh 900 million in transportation costs, saving people 396 million hours on the road, and reducing road accidents and associated economic losses by 12 percent.
A video released by the Dubai Future Foundation in April, for example, offered a glimpse into the future by showing local people - Emiratis and expats alike - getting onboard what they believe to be a taxi, only to find the car driverless, able to navigate on its own. Among the chief proponents of driverless vehicles in Dubai has been app-based booking service Careem, which in July announced a partnership with NEXT Future Foundation to design bring battery-powered, self-driving electric pods to the region.
The pods - which Careem hopes will form an integral part of Dubai's taxi fleet by 2030 - can be driven individually, or by attaching themselves to other pods to form a bus-like structure in which riders can move from one pod to the other.
Another driverless vehicle, a 10-seater which is designed to operate over short distances on pre-programmed routes, was already test driven by His Highness Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council, at the UITP MENA Transport Congress and Exhibition 2016 in April.
Importantly, tech-savvy UAE residents are among the most receptive people in the world when it comes to stepping into driverless vehicles. A recent study from the Boston Consulting Group, for example, found that 70 percent of consumers in the UAE are open to the idea of being in a driverless car, compared to 58 percent globally. Another 79 percent said they'd be open to "partially self-driving" cars.