Dubai's 'eye in the sky' will track flying cars

Dubai will be using its newly opened Enterprise Command and Control Centre (EC3) to track the movement of flying cars in its skies, according to a senior Road and Transport Authority (RTA).

Last month, the emirate's transportation authority said it is expecting to start commercial operations of pilotless aerial taxis in the next five years.

While it announced a new agreement with German Volocopter and will begin test run of the unmanned two-seater aerial vehicles before the end of the year, China's Ehang Company is continuing to test its single passenger autonomous aerial vehicle (EHang 184) in the city. The company released a video of its test last week.

In an exclusive interview, Ahmed Bahrozyan, CEO, RTA Licensing Agency, and chairman of the smart vehicles committee, said they will be using EC3 to monitor flying vehicles in the city.

"We envision the EC3 will be the control centre for aerial vehicles where we will be able to track, monitor and manage these aerial vehicles."

The $91.28m (AED335m) centre, launched in May, currently monitors and controls all of mass transits, including the Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, public buses, taxis and marine transit. For now it handles 55 million records every day using 11,231 CCTV cameras but will be used to manage and plan major events such as Expo 2020.

The Dubai government plans to have 25 percent of its transport autonomous by 2030 and is working on a phased introduction of autonomous transit modes to help generate economic revenues and savings of up to $5.99 billion (AED22 billion) a year.

Source: Dubai's 'eye in the sky' will track flying cars