Among all the Middle East nations, UAE is usually the one that takes pioneering steps to drive the rest of the region towards development. There is a lot of difference you can find in the UAE past and present technology upgrades.
In the past few years, Dubai, which is one of the emirates of UAE, has grown at an unparalleled rate in terms of infrastructure, technology, and innovation. Of course, it is because of the near-endless wealth that rests in UAE, but you cannot blame them for inheriting something.
Besides, they are putting their money to good use. Robocops, electric cars, and whatnot, Dubai has it all.
The key to Dubai’s technology progress is the city’s zeal to adapt to recent technologies. At present, we are almost midway 2020, and technologies have changed, or precisely, improved, and Dubai technologies are keeping up with each trend and invention for the betterment of the city and its people.
Technology in the UAE surprising everyone with its latest advancements. Here are some of the recent instances of Dubai reacting to technological advancements to support our claim.
Here is why UAE is a tech Pioneer?
- Flying Taxi
Dubai being the first city to have flying taxis is nothing out of the blue that is coming across. Dubai has always been the most significant profit base for Uber.
A report from 2015 revealed that the cab service giant receives most pick up request from Dubai airport. So it was pretty evident that if an Uber project is ever released in the testing phase, Dubai would be among the top contenders to run the pilot project.
However, it will still take the Dubai citizens to wait till 2020 before they can see Uber’s flying around the city in demo.
So flying taxis, huh? Is that what the buzz is all about?
Well, the most striking feature of these flying taxis is going to their in-built autonomous flight protocol.
Yes, a drone taxi ride is what Uber is trying to come up with, for which the company is going to use a volocopter powered by 18 propellers.
In case you are wondering what concepts of quantum physics you will have to understand to be able to request a volocopter, the good news is that it is going to be just how you have been using your Uber app. Passenger will only need to reach the nearest helipad (voloport) after they request the volocopter pickup.
- Smart Airport Gates
Applying for a passport is a herculean task for most due to the number of documents and verification steps it involves. And oh, the wait times; people can hardly take that stress.
Now around the world, passport offices follow the manual procedure, with passport officials patiently going through each document, which is not only time-consuming but also not efficient.
The leaders of UAE recognized the need to address the situation, and under Dubai’s 10x initiative to reduce human involvement in tasks, announced the automation of registration and authentication gateways at Dubai airport.
At present, the government is planning to build 122 smart gates around the airport to increase throughout by a fair margin.
- Samsung Pay online Payment Feature out for UAE
Samsung has been quite aggressive with rolling out its virtual payment system, known as Samsung Pay, but patient with other related services.
Almost a year later, from the initial launch of Samsung Pay in the UAE region, Samsung has finally made the Samsung Pay service online for the group of Emirates. What will this change?
Now the online shoppers can use Samsung Pay to make online payments just like Internet Banking, or Debit Card, without having to worry about looking for alternatives to Samsung Pay.
The single integrated Samsung wallet will be used for the purpose, which gives users a uniform way to pay.
In 2017, UAE was the first among the Middle Eastern nations, to receive Samsung Pay, and right after a year of completion, UAE citizens can now enjoy the quickest digital payment method in the world.
Supposedly, Samsung Pay for digital payments will offer the same speed and ease of authentication with ID options like fingerprint and iris scan.
- Robots in Recruitment
The recruitment industry is not only complicated, but the size of throughput and efficiency it demands in everyday operations is quite large. And of course, the accuracy is something that cannot be side-lined when it comes to hiring the right candidate for a job.
While the rest of the world is still stuck on manual operations, UAE has a different approach in hiring people – automation.
Recently, the UAE tied up with a Russian startup that renders AI-based services, to implement Robot Vera in the recruitment process.
Now, the thing about Robot Vera is that it specializes in interviewing candidates based on its AI logic. Questions asked by Vera is processed via AI algorithms and matched with the most logical, right answers.
Over a period of time, Vera has improved from conducting telephonic interviews with limited answers to deducing the correctness of an explanation on its own.
Machine Learning plays a significant role in what Vera does, which enables it to get better with time. A clear proof of such capabilities of Vera is that it has already fixed over 90k employees.
- The Rise of Blockchain
UAE has been quite keen in the world of blockchain technology and what it can offer, from the very beginning. Tagged, as one of the early supporters of blockchain technology, UAE is all set to unveil the potential of blockchain and put it to use for its people.
Nothing to be surprised about, under the Dubai Smart Government initiative along with NBD Bank, announced the development of a dedicated city-wide blockchain transaction system. The system is said to be a uniform payment system from POS transactions to paying for government services and is going to be based on Smart Contracts.
Apart from this, Dubai is also en route creating its cryptocurrency that goes by the name emCash.
As per Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the adoption of blockchain technology will help the Arab nation save big time, especially all the money that goes in vain on inefficient operations and processes.
To harness blockchain technology, UAE also launched the ‘UAE Blockchain Strategy 2021’ that focuses on channelling more than 50% of government transactions to reduce manual work and intermediary steps that can easily be implemented with smart contracts.
- Final words
UAE’s zeal to stay ahead of the rest of the world is a little too competitive, but when we are talking development, UAE takes no prisoners.
The latest technology and gadgets are a treat to watch during UAE exhibitions, and having them hands-on is a matter of days before they appear on the shelves.
However, some of the inventions that Dubai adopted like AI, Blockchain and more are still under test phase for the rest of the world, and at present, we cannot have a sure shot say on how these technologies will evolve UAE and the allied region.