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Dubai forum forecasts autonomous cars poised to shape the future

Xinhua, October 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Participants in Dubai International Project Management Forum held Tuesday that autonomous cars are poised to shape the future and significantly reduce the need for parking space at office buildings.

Mohammed Alabbar, the chairman of the Middle East's biggest developer Emaar Properties in Dubai, said Tuesday that driverless cars have the capability of creating an efficient car sharing system and can be pooled at residential areas without consumer space at the work place.

Alabbar, who is an advisor to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government in business related topics, made the remarks on the second day of the Dubai International Project Management Forum held under the theme "shaping the future."

Any city, any country which does research on self-driving autos will have to consider the disruptive consequences for architects, home designers and builders, he said.

Asked by Xinhua when driverless cars will dictate the design of buildings, Alabbar said that "I do not have a timeline as yet, it is our vision, but I think most real estate projects which are under development or under construction will have to take the rise and impact of self-driving vehicles into account."

"In addition, autonomous vehicles will force the industry "to build faster and to earn faster. I hear of developers in China which build 30-story tall buildings in world record time. We have to stay innovative in order to go with innovative solutions, driverless cars being one of them," said Alabbar.

Emaar is the developer of the world's tallest mixed-use tower, the 828 meter high Burj Khalifa (Arabic for tower of Khalifa, named after the UAE President).

On Oct. 10, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum broke ground for "The Tower," which Emaar jointly develop with the government-controlled Dubai Holding.

The building is poised to be "a notch higher than the Burj Khalifa," according to Alabbar, upon completion by 2020 when Dubai will host the World Expo as the first Arab metropolis. Endit