Last year, Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) unveiled the new design for their so called “autonomous pods” (pictured in the featured image). Here’s what you need to know:
With a total capacity of ten passengers, the RTA are currently in the process of testing out prototypes of the first autonomous pods. Incase the name isn’t quite clicking with what exactly these “pods” are, think of them as essentially driverless taxi’s. As one can presume from the design, they’re solely intended for short distances around certain locations in Dubai… sort of similar to the tram system. There’s two uses for the pods: either they act alone as solo taxi’s, or multiple can attach to one another and act as driverless bus, with passengers being able to walk between of the pods (and use free Wi-Fi!).
The average speed is expected to be 20km/h… so yeah, don’t get too excited about any potential races with your mates 😉 Although no launch date has been officially announced, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for sometime this year? One thing’s for sure, when they finally make it to the streets of Dubai, it’ll be a massive step forward in the transportation industry. We’ll keep you posted with updates!