Dubai testing autonomous pods

DUBAI: A trial of autonomous pods has begun in Dubai which the Gulf’s trade and tourism hub hopes will help its transformation into one of the smartest cities in the world.

Officials from Dubai’s Roads and

Transport Authority (RTA) displayed two cubeshaped vehicles built by USbased Next Future Transportation company in Italy as they spun around on a main street in Dubai.

Passersby stopped to try out the sixseat vehicles and question the Italian engineers overseeing the test.

RTA officials said they had allocated 1.5 million dirhams ($NZ56,1450) for further research and development of the vehicles, which Dubai hopes to use for local transportation under the city’s 2030 Dubai Future Accelerators that aim to make 25% of daily transportation selfdriven.

The RTA says the pods would travel on preprogrammed routes in the first few years, but would eventually become accessible for pickup from home using a mobile telephone application. — Reuters