Dubai Plans a Taxi That Skips the Driver, and the Roads 14, 2017 FEB. 14, 2017 Like a scene from "The Jetsons," commuters in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, may soon climb aboard automated flying taxis, soaring over busy streets and past the desert city’s gleaming skyscrapers, all — quite literally — at the push of a button. Mattar Al Tayer said that is not just a model but it has really flown in Du In October, the city signed a deal with the Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One to study the potential for a hyperloop — a vacuum-like tube through which vehicle pods hurtle at speeds faster than airliners — between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates capital. Passenger drones, capable of carrying a single rider and a small suitcase, will begin buzzing above the emirate as early as July, according to the director of the city’s transportation authority, part of an ambitious plan to increase driverless technology. The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced last year that 25 percent of all journeys in the city would be conducted by driverless vehicles by 2030. The craft can carry a 220-pound passenger, according to a promotional video produced by the Roads and Transport Authority, which depicts a man boarding the vessel, buckling into a race car-style harness and tapping his destination on a touch screen before taking off.
