G42 starts driverless taxi service trials in Abu Dhabi; and more Middle East AI News
Carrington Malin
⚡𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱⚡𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 | CEO Advisor | Artificial Intelligence | Tech Marketing | GTM strategy | Board Advisor
Welcome to Middle East AI News!
The UAE is positively buzzing with emerging tech and 4IR news this month! And with the Dubai Airshow and Adipec taking place last week, and the Global Manufacturing and Industry Summit (GMIS), Abu Dhabi Smart Cities Summit, Fintech Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Security Week 2021 taking place this week, it's mission impossible just to keep up with the news!
This week we've seen more movement forwards for the UAE's autonomous transport plans, with Group 42 (G42) preparing to start a robotaxi service on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island; a new Dubai Future Fund initiative to encourage innovation and development in the drone services sector; and the debut of ADNOC Distribution's first cashierless store. However, it's important to note that these things didn't just appear out of thin air. These initiatives all follow studies, projects and proof of concepts worked on during the past few years. So, the new drone, automation and AV moves are well-founded and, arguably, have a higher chance of success than the projects that came before them.
Have a question or want to share your own perspective? Please do leave a comment or send me a message. I'd love to hear from you!
/Carrington
Middle East AI News – 25-Nov-21
🔊 Listen to the podcast version of this newsletter (Soundcloud)
G42 starting robotaxi trial on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island
News broke this week that Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud computing company Group 42 (G42) was ready to begin a driverless transport services trial on the capital's tourism and leisure destination, Yas Island. It will be the biggest autonomous vehicle trial to take place in the #UAE to-date.
The group announced in March of this year that it would be running a autonomous transport service in Q4 2021 in partnership with The Department of Municipalities and Transport in Abu Dhabi. On Sunday, Bloomberg confirmed that the trial would begin this month and G42 unveiled it's first robotaxi model - 'TXAI' - on Tuesday at the Abu Dhabi Smart City Summit.
The Level 4 Autonomous Driving trial will be run by G42 subsidiary Bayanat (Bayanat for Mapping & Surveying Services LLC), which it acquired in early 2020. The trial will use five vehicles and will serve nine locations on Yas Island, including hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. All vehicles will have a safety driver during the trial.
It's not much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that the Yas Island trial will be an operational success, given that it's being run in a relatively contained tourism area. It could be more of a challenge when the second phase is rolled out, which will involve at AV fleet of at least 10 vehicles serving multiple locations across Abu Dhabi
Find out more about the Yas Island robotaxi trial:
ADNOC Distribution opens first cashierless store
After some years of trials globally, it seems that the automated retail store is finally becoming a reality. Two things are essential here - 1) the technology to offer a seamless, automated customer experience and 2) customers willing to shop frequently at a store that has no customer service staff.
In September, Majid Al Futtaim opened its first AI-powered check-out free store - Carrefour City+ - at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, working with California-based store automation specialists AiFi Inc. Now, a couple of months later, ADNOC Distribution has launched its first fully autonomous, contactless and cashierless ADNOC Oasis store, using a solution from another US smart store specialist, AWM.
The road to the fully-automated store has not been an easy one. For example, Sainsbury's - the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom - launched its first checkoutless store in spring 2019, only to close it a few months later. However, a few years have passed, technology has moved on and the Covid-19 pandemic made contactless shopping a thing.
The success of these two concept stores are going to be key in determining the growth of automated stores in the region. Majid Al Futtaim, the Middle East's biggest shopping mall operator, and ADNOC Distribution, the UAE’s largest fuel convenience retailer, couldn't be better placed to carry out the litmus test!
Find out more about these automated store pilots:
New DFF programme to help drive drone innovation
HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation launched a new drone innovation programme this week. It is the first major initiative to be announced since the Dubai drone law was passed in July 2020.
The 𝗗𝘂𝗯𝗮𝗶 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 aims to foster public-private partnerships, facilitate approvals for drone trials, and contribute to physical and digital infrastructure. Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) will be used as a designated area to test and trial drone services and solutions.
Last year's drone law outlined a framework for developing new regulations governing drone activity and creating a services ecosystem. With Dubai Civil Aviation Authority plans for a Dubai Sky Dome already drafted - proposing services, infrastructure and digital systems for UAV air corridors across Dubai - the new law gave DCAA the mandate to go ahead and create a regulated drone services ecosystem. However, the devil is in the detail, and despite progress, very little has been announced over the past 16 months.
So, there maybe a lot more to the new drone programme than meets the eye. Creating a drone testing at DSO, makes it the go-to contact point for innovators and global companies that want to demo their drone solutions to public and private sector. The inclusion of Emirates SkyCargo in the programme sends a signal that logistics solutions are top of mind. Meanwhile, having DSO's Fakeeh University Hospital and Majid Al Futtaim involved points to potential collaboration on trials of delivery solutions for healthcare and the retail sector. This drone programme could accelerate public-private sector engagement dramatically and help fast-track proof of concepts in the short term, not to mention create a much needed pipeline of Dubai drone news.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Find out more about Dubai's drone plans:
More News!
Here's some other interesting news from the past week:
Autonomous Vehicles
Retail
Smart Cities
Corporate Moves
Digital Transformation
Agritech
Defence
Interview of the week!
Watch: UAE Minister on deploying AI to improve quality of life
CNN's Eleni Giokos interviews UAE AI Minister Omar Sultan AlOlama discusses investing in infrastructure to be part of the "trillions of dollars of impact" that he anticipates 5G will have, and utilising AI for efficiency gains and to improve quality of life.
Watch the video (3 minutes)
You'll also find another interview with AlOlama in Almonitor this week. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/dTapjNhD
👋 Thanks for reading this week's newsletter!
💡 How was it? Questions? Thoughts? Please do leave a comment below!
If you'd like to receive this Middle East AI News Linkedin newsletter every Thursday, please click the Subscribe button at the top of this page!
If you'd like to receive my original Middle East AI News email earlier on Thursday morning (that would be Wednesday evening in the US), then you can subscribe here to the original.
If you want to reach out to me you're welcome to send me a message via Linkedin or an email to carrington@carringtonmalin.com
CEO, Founder | NNTC - Bespoke innovations, Industrial Metaverse, Turnkey IT projects || Bizdev.ae - outsourced sales for tech companies in MENA ||| Ex-IBMer ||| Wannabe philosopher, boxer, comedian
3yOnly 1400? Should be at least 10X of that)