Skip the traffic: Dubai announces electric driverless abras

We get it, Dubai is the best city to reside in - especially when you’re house-hunting with us!

But what makes Dubai the best city to reside in, you might ask? Well, Its consistent change toward bringing sustainable and smart projects into action and consistently trumping world records after another is definitely a starter - and this is just the beginning.

So, when it comes to the next big thing, our expectations are bound to be high! RTA has recently announced that abras at the Dubai Creek would now be driverless and would operate on electricity.

If you thought electric cars were all that, wait till we travel on the creek in these electric passenger abras. And for those of you who don’t know what abras are, they are small passenger boats that carry about eight people through the creek daily.

There are 150 abras on the Dubai Creek, with prices starting at AED 1 per person, it's a great way to explore Old Dubai and commute through Bur Dubai and Deira if you plan to skip on the traffic!

The journey of driverless abras

RTA began the initial testing for driverless abras at Al Jaddaf going all the way to Festival City at the Dubai Creek. The Autonomous Electric Abra has incredible features, with maintenance costs reduced by 30%, zero carbon emissions and no loud noises compared to the traditional abras.

The best part, these abras are equipped with two electric motors with a maximum speed of seven knots. It has an autonomous control system and four batteries that ensure an operating time of seven hours at one stretch.

How cool is that?

Even cooler, these driverless abras contribute to Dubai’s master plan to curb carbon emissions of public transport as per the requirements of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and is in line with RTA’s efforts to achieve Dubai’s Strategy for Self-Driving Transport that aims to convert 25 per cent of the total mobility journeys in Dubai into self-driving journeys by 2030.

Dubai is on its way to ruling the charts, and we’re all for it!

Planning to call Dubai home?

Take a look at some of our live listings and if you’re looking to get your way around other public transportation arenas in Dubai - take a look at our Dubai Metro Map.