It may sound like something out of a James Bond movie: you sit in the back seat of your car, shout out the name of your favourite restaurant, and bingo — you are driven there.
But the world of driverless cars is no longer the stuff of movies. According to UAE Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, by 2030 one in four UAE residents will be using a driverless vehicle.
The technology has been in the mix for over 90 years but it is only now revving up.
Technology firm Google has self-driven over 2.4 million km across the US; Singaporean firm nuTonomy recently launched its driverless taxi service; and app-based transportation firm Uber plans to test its self-driving software in Volvo’s vehicles in the coming weeks.
What was once a fictionalised scene in a futuristic motion picture is finally becoming a reality. Yet despite advancements in the world of autonomous driving, many people are still baffled by vehicles that do not require human control.
How do they work? According to technology motoring firm Robert Bosch Middle East, the secret behind driverless cars is in the navigation.
“Driverless cars function through high precision maps that are constantly updated in order for the automated vehicles to function safely,” Robert Bosch Middle East vice president Volker Bischoff explains. More info
By Lubna Hamdan www.arabianbusiness.com
