UAE driverless taxis

[rtt_rules]

https://www.thenationalnews.com/future/ ... n-the-uae/

Uber launches its first international driverless taxi service in the UAE. First trips on Saadiyat and Yas islands with more services to follow

Uber and China's WeRide have launched the Middle East's first commercial driverless mobility service in Abu Dhabi.

Trips will first be available in areas such as Saadiyat Island and Yas Island and routes to and from Zayed International Airport. Transport company Tawasul will operate WeRide's vehicles on the Uber platform.

It will be available to Uber riders requesting UberX or Uber Comfort. For qualifying trips, riders will have the opportunity to be matched with a WeRide AV.

Each vehicle will be equipped with a human safety operator at the wheel. Uber plans to phase out safety drivers by 2025, Uber's global head of autonomous mobility and delivery operations, Noah Zych, told The National.

Unlike a human driver, an autonomous vehicle is programmed to follow the rules of the road every time Noah Zyck, Uber

“We want to approach this responsibly," he said. "We want to ensure that the technology is safe, the customers are comfortable, and the regulators are comfortable with the performance of the technology. As we mature and demonstrate safe operation, we hope to remove the safety operators next year and provide fully driverless rides."

Pedestrian detection

The technology behind WeRide's autonomous vehicles is outfitted with LiDAR, technology that uses laser light to measure distances and create precise 3D maps of its surroundings, as well as radar and cameras, Mr Zych said.

These sensors work together to map the area around the vehicle, helping it detect and track pedestrians, other cars and obstacles, while ensuring it follows traffic rules and reacts to any changes in its environment.

The ability of autonomous vehicles to follow traffic laws without distractions – such as a human driver texting – is also a key safety feature. “Unlike a human driver, an autonomous vehicle is programmed to follow the rules of the road every time,” Mr Zych added.

“It won't speed, make illegal turns, or get sidetracked. It's designed to provide the safest and most efficient ride possible.”

San Francisco-based Uber said in August it will include Cruise robotaxis in its US fleet in 2025. The company has been offering driverless cars in Phoenix, Arizona, on its platform since October last year through an agreement with Alphabet's Waymo. Guangzhou-based WeRide manufactures vehicles with level-4 autonomy – one step below full autonomy, which is when a car is entirely capable of driving itself without the intervention of a human.

In July last year, WeRide became the first company to receive a preliminary national licence for self-driving cars from the UAE Cabinet. At that time, the company announced plans to begin testing various autonomous vehicles on UAE roads, including robotaxis, robobuses, robovans, and robosweepers.

[Myrtone]

At the moment, public transport allows each operator to move more people at a time than they could with a more individual vehicle. But this means a great deal of services that can be supported (going by the amount of journeys to serve) are not super frequent.
It seems that running smaller vehicles more frequently could make financial and economic sense more widely if they drive themselves with no operator on board and a standard route bus every 15 minutes, let alone at a lower frequency, is not really moving more people than smaller vehicles (such as minivans) at a higher frequency could.

[rtt_rules]

At the moment, public transport allows each operator to move more people at a time than they could with a more individual vehicle. But this means a great deal of services that can be supported (going by the amount of journeys to serve) are not super frequent.
It seems that running smaller vehicles more frequently could make financial and economic sense more widely if they drive themselves with no operator on board and a standard route bus every 15 minutes, let alone at a lower frequency, is not really moving more people than smaller vehicles (such as minivans) at a higher frequency could.

Which is sort of what the Sydney Metro's are all about.

As they are automated they can run shorter trains more frequently at no greater cost than larger trains less frequent and thus improve the passenger experience. In all cases additional carriages can be added in the future, however for now frequency is the goal.

Further more, but spreading out the stations in distance which is a trend on both new HR and Metro projects, the average travel time is reduced compared to older lines where trains barely hit line speed between stations which makes longer trips very painful.

[Myrtone]

Except that the Sydney metro is a heavy metro, it is not an automated light metro, so it is not a case using automation to run smaller vehicles at higher frequencies than is done with heavy rail. But automated light metro is indeed about running smaller vehicles at higher frequencies without additional crewing.