When coming across articles about new technologies and its applications, I always feel that the city Dubai pops op a lot. It sure isn’t a poor city, and they are setting great initiatives in motion when it comes to digital. Therefore, I thought it to be interesting to sum up some of these technology/ digital initiatives as I feel Dubai will be a first-mover when it comes to smart cities and governments, setting a great example to follow for other cities.
To begin with, Dubai sets its government on a mission to be ten years ahead of all other cities, with focusing on radical innovations rather than incremental innovations (Dubaifuture, 2017).
3D printing strategy
Dubai aims to be the leading hub of 3D printing technology, where in 2025 it aims to have 1.7 billion medical products and 2.8 billion consumer products, all 3D printed. Also, by 2030 25% of Dubai’s buildings will be 3D printed (Dubaifuture, 2017).
Autonomous transportation strategy
By 2030, 25% of all transportation in Dubai will be autonomous, leading to considerable reductions in transportation costs and environmental pollution, as well as increasing productivity hours and public transport efficiency (Dubaifuture, 2017). As we speak Dubai is setting in place autonomous taxi services, with 50 autonomous Tesla cars already put to work a month ago (Futurism, 2017).
Dubai Blockchain Initiative
Dubai has set a goal to become the first blockchain powered government by 2020, which means all implementable transactions will be done through blockchain technology. As part of the strategy, Dubai is actively looking and offering jobs to developers in the Dubai Blockchain Initiative (Ciomajlis, 2017).
These initiatives are just a few set by Dubai’s government, as there are a lot more smart developments going on in and for this city (Smartcitiesdubai, 2017). The Dubai police force, for example, is deploying robot policemen as it hopes to replace a quarter (25%) of its human cops with droid cops by 2030 (Forbes, 2017)! One thing is for sure, Dubai is very forward-thinking when it comes to the application of new technologies and the goals that are set. It strives to be leading by example in the field of technology, which personally I think is very interesting and worth to keep your eye on!
References:
Ciomajlis. (2017). Dubai rapidly moving toward becoming the world’s first blockchain powered government by 2020. Retrieved from https://www.ciomajlis.ae/dubai-rapidly-moving-toward-becoming-the-worlds-first-blockchain-powered-government-by-2020/ on 18/10/2017.
Dubaifuture. (2017). Our initiatives. Retrieved from http://www.dubaifuture.gov.ae/our-initiatives/ on 18/10/2017.
Forbes. (2017). Meet The Terrifying New Robot Cop That’s Patrolling Dubai. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/susannahbreslin/2017/06/03/robot-cop-dubai/#183a59846872 on 18/10/2017.
Futurism. (2017). Dubai Jump Starts Autonomous Taxi Service With 50 Tesla Vehicles. Retrieved from https://futurism.com/dubai-jump-starts-autonomous-taxi-service-with-50-tesla-vehicles/ on 18/10/2017.
Smartcitiesdubai. (2017). Arab future cities summit Dubai 2017. Retrieved from http://www.smartcitiesdubai.com/ on 19/10/2017.
Hi Ricardo, interesting posts regarding UAE’s ambitions and how Dubai will be the city of the future. However, I think there could be a real danger when autocratic countries like the UAE will make more use of these kind of technologies. When there are no sufficient checks and balances in your country’s system these robot cops for example could be a real danger to opposition forces. So, these radical developments initiated by Dubai’s sheikhs could have an hidden objective, to consolidate power in the future, without the people knowing it in the first place.