SomE of ThE RTA SmART iniTiATivES

Smart testing yard

Parking tests for all Dubai driving licence applicants are now done at the RTA’s smart training and testing yards. The smart test for parking include slope test, emergency brake test, parallel parking test, garage parking test and angle parking test. Everything is usually completed in 15 minutes. The vehicle used for the parking test is equipped with five cameras and 20 sensors. All the information about the driver’s and the vehicle’s movement is gathered in the CPU inside the vehicle. The data is analysed by the system and it calculates the student’s score and sends it to the control room. More than 6,000 applicants have taken the smart yard test since it was launched from February to October last year.

driverless taxis

Before the start of the year, the RTA has put the region’s first driverless taxi on the road. It is still on a trial phase but the self-driving cab made a run at designated routes in Dubai Silicon Oasis and will be on test stage for three months. According to the RTA, the driverless cab can run at a speed of up to 35km per hour and can accommodate four people, including a professional driver who can take over the vehicle in case of an emergency. Driverless taxis are part of RTA’s initiative to support the Dubai Government’s Strategy to convert 25 per cent of total journeys around the city into self-driving transport by 2030.

Smart traffic lights and intelligent streetlights

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also applied in smart traffic signals at selected roads across Dubai. It detects pedestrians’ movement on pavements and accordingly adjusts the remaining time automatically.

Streetlights in Dubai could soon be turned brighter when people are passing or dimmed when streets are not in use, thanks to the RTA’s Intelligent Pedestrian and Cycling Track Lighting System.