Dubai to roll out self-driving delivery vehicle in Downtown area
Aself-driving delivery vehicle will be rolled out soon in Downtown Dubai, a senior official from the Roads and Transport Authority announced at Gitex, the region’s largest information technology show that opened at Dubai World Trade Centre yesterday
The autonomous vehicle will be used as a last-mile delivery solution and will be initially deployed along Emaar Boulevard in Downtown Dubai, where the vehicle will deliver goods from retailers on its own without human intervention, explained Khalid Al Awadhi, Director of Transportation Systems at RTA.
The delivery system is fast and convenient — the self-driving delivery vehicle takes the parcel to a given location and the recipient can pick it up with a QR code to open the carriage.
The driverless vehicle developed by Chinese company Neolix can be used for delivery of food, parcel and various merchandise, noted Al Awadhi, adding: “The autonomous delivery system is part of Dubai World Challenge for autonomous transport launched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, which is aimed at transforming 25 per cent of total mobility journeys in Dubai into self-driving means by 2030.”
How it works?
Speaking exclusively to Gulf News, Jason Wang, country manager of Neolix, said Neolix has created a safe platform for the unmanned vehicle. The vehicle, which runs at maximum speed limit of 20km/h, is equipped with three 16-line lidars, one 1-line lidar, one front-facing camera, four high-definition surround view cameras, four wide-angle cameras, 14 ultrasonic radars and 2-millimetre wave radars. In terms of vehicle “perception”, the vehicle can identify pedestrians, motor vehicles, non-motor vehicles, roadblocks, lane lines, traffic lights, etc.”
“The multi-sensor fusion positioning scheme will ensure centimetre-level positioning accuracy. There is also behaviour-prediction based on deep learning to ensure safety and provide a scenario-based decision planning mechanism. For safety, there is software and hardware backup redundancy, emergency avoidance system and 5G remote takeover system.”
Neolix runs on a dedicated path to ensure obstacle avoidance.