World’s first self-driving Tesla taxis are set to hit the roads in Dubai by 2020

AT
By AT
March 5, 2017Entertainment
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World’s first self-driving Tesla taxis are set to hit the roads in Dubai by 2020

You call a taxi. Hurriedly sit inside. Then tell the driver where he needs to take you. Only thing—there’s no driver!

Where this will happen first is of little surprise. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced to have 200 self-driving Tesla electric cars as taxis on its roads by 2020.

The day before the purchase was signed, Elon Musk said on a summit in Dubai that Tesla would open their first Middle East office in Dubai.

In a first test run the cars will be used on ‘autopilot’ with a human driver behind the wheel for emergencies. The cars themselves will come with full self-driving hardware as Musk said in October last year. All future Tesla models will be equipped with the complete set of hardware required for autonomous driving.

These new taxis are part of the ‘Dubai Smart Autonomous Mobility Strategy’ said Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the board of executive directors of the RTA. “It’s aimed at transforming 25 per cent of total journeys in Dubai into autonomous journeys by 2030.” So stand by, there is a lot more to come!

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