Laying out the road to happiness with RTA
Dubai’s happiness goal is not just in the here and now. It is forward looking and constantly evolving, particularly in the smart transport sector where the goal is to have driverless cars on the streets, flying taxis (not just drones) up in the air, and sub-sonic Hyperloop transport in the near future.
At the World Government Summit early this year, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced that it had successfully carried out a test run of an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) capable of carrying a human up in the air.
“The future is now in the making. Our talk about autonomous vehicles has become a reality. It is now high time to move to autonomous aerial vehicles,” said Mattar Al Tayer, RTA director general and chairman of the board of executive directors, at the Summit.
Al Tayer also noted that Dubai’s strategy is to incorporate all public transport — trains, buses, trains, marine transit and taxis — as well as private vehicles into one smart transport system. He said: “We anticipate that the percentage of trips that will be made by the driverless Dubai Metro to reach 12.2 per cent by 2030 compared with 8.8 per cent in 2016 and the percentage of trips made by self-driving buses to reach 6.4 per cent by 2030.”
Similarly, at Global Manufactur- ing and Industrialisation Summit held last month in Abu Dhabi, Al Tayer spoke at length about the future of self-driving transportation and said: “For last 25 years, many companies are working in this field. In the next five to 10 years, it will be widely deployed.”
“It will require legislation regulations, ready technology, and sustainable infrastructure and most important is culture. Driving behaviour of people too is different from city to city. I expect in next 10 years, 50 per cent of the cars will have self-driving features,” added Al Tayer.
Al Tayer realistically noted: “The Hyperloop, flying taxis and others, in my opinion, will take more than 10 to 15 years. We need to certify that they are safe and suitable for human use.”
Although technologies are evolving rapidly, Al Tayer also took caution and underlined: “We need to improve safety, reduce the travel time as it affects the economy and protect the environment as we talk about green economy.”
Commuters’ happiness is also anchored on shared mobility. Al Tayer noted: “According to studies, one car sharing will replace nine to 13 private vehicles. This will decrease demand of private cars.”
With this goal, Al Tayer challenged car manufacturers “to shift focus from market share to mobility share.”