Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority is making waves with a slew of announcements the regulatory department has made at the World Government Summit. First, the department announced that the EHang Autonomous Passenger Drone would be making its way to friendly skies come this Summer. The second announcement was the purchasing of 200 Tesla cars from the Electric car maker.
If you’ve missed the news, Tesla has recently launched in the UAE, bringing with it the Model S and the Model X. While a plethora of eager enthusiasts are already lining up to place orders, the RTA has beaten them to the punch with their announcement, with the exact deal being made during the World Government Summit. It was signed by Mattar Al Tayer, director general and chairman of the RTA and Elon Musk, chairman and CEO of Tesla Inc.
The deal is part of an ongoing effort by the government of Dubai to turn to renewable energy and automotive transportation. The effort hopes to see 25% of all commutes in Dubai to be done by autonomous vehicles by 2030. And yes, while the two car models come with steering wheels, they’re capable of autonomous driving.
To that effect, the RTA will be conducting tests with the vehicles, which will operate as part of the Dubai Taxi limo fleet, in the Summer. While the cars can be autonomous, there will most likely still be a driver behind the wheels, ready to take over in certain situations.
“Tesla’s Autopilot is designed as a hands-on experience to give drivers more confidence behind the wheel, increase their safety on the road, and make highway driving more enjoyable by reducing the driver’s workload.”
The Tesla Model S has an industry leading NEDC range of up to 632 km and accelerates from 0 to 100 kph in just 2.7 seconds. Meanwhile, the Model X has 565 km of range (NEDC) on a single charge and accelerates from 0 to 100 kph in as quickly as 3.1 seconds.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s own showroom is still being built on Sheikh Zayed Road, as is captured by our own Samer Chami below:
The new @TeslaMotors showroom in Dubai on SZR. #MyDubai #Tesla pic.twitter.com/4DORvwNOZa
— Samer (@BiGsAm) February 12, 2017
