Countdown to Saudi data law; and more Middle East AI News
Carrington Malin
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Welcome to Middle East AI News!
You'll find this week's Middle East AI News quite focused on Saudi Arabia, because of two significant news items this month.
Firstly, the Kingdom's Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services signed an MoU with French driverless shuttle startup NAVYA Group - as far as I'm aware, the first and only agreement signed by the transport ministry directly with an autonomous vehicle developer.
Second, Saudi Arabia's new Personal Data Protection Law?comes into effect next week, although the detailed regulations for the law are still under review - and businesses have little more than a week to raise their concerns!
And, as luck would have it, the organisers of #LEAP2022 , have just uploaded a great video of NEOM Tech and Digital Holding CEO Joseph Bradley?giving his presentation at the conference in Riyadh last month. Well worth a watch!
Scroll down for these stories and much more!
Have a question or want to share your own perspective? Please do leave a comment or send me a message. I'd love to hear from you!
/Carrington
Middle East AI News – 17-Mar-22
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Is Saudi Arabia's driverless shuttle market about to take off?
Last week #Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services signed an MoU with French autonomous mobility systems company NAVYA Group . The agreement paves the way for the Lyon-headquartered manufacturer to work with the government on deploying driverless shuttle buses in town centres, smart cities, airports, theme parks and industrial sites.
No target dates, nor vehicle numbers were mentioned in the official announcement, but the agreement does seem to centre around use cases that can be relatively easy to implement, for the first mile and last mile (i.e. transport needs at the beginning and end of every journey). Therefore, deployment of Navya's shared transport solutions could proceed as fast as stakeholders want it too. The remaining questions then, are how fast and, what advantage does the new MoU give Navya over the competition?
Saudi Arabia has a number of driverless shuttle bus trials taking place across the country, using autonomous vehicles from a variety of manufacturers, including Navya.
The Kingdom’s first driverless shuttle buses arrived in 2019. Autonomous shuttles from Arizona-based Local Motors (now defunct) and French firm EasyMile have been in operation on the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) campus in mixed traffic conditions for the past 2-3 years. The initial pilot project was launched with the support of Saudi Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) and KAUST users can use the service in conjunction with SAPTCO's Rekab smart services app. The university has plans to expand the project and build a larger autonomous bus fleet.
Saudi telecom provider stc began testing an EasyMile driverless shuttle using 5G, in collaboration with Ericsson , starting in 2020. Visitors to #LEAP2022 in #Riyadh last month, would also have seen an stc EasyMile shuttle being demonstrated in the exhibition car park.
The Royal Commission for AlUla launched a pilot project for a fully autonomous transport service earlier this year in AlUla, an up and coming tourism destination in the country's north-western #Medina Region. The solution was developed by RATP Development Saudi Arabia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French transport group RATP , using a driverless shuttle bus from Belgium AV firm 2getthere . The project also has plans to introduce another shuttle from EasyMile, and to expand to service to the neighbouring areas of Dadan, Hegra and AlJadidah.
Saudi Arabia has the greatest potential for driverless shuttles in the region due to its modern infrastructure and the number and scale of university campuses, self-contained urban districts, tourism destinations and public complexes. However, the construction of NEOM , the huge futuristic urban development being built in Tabuk Province, means that the Saudi market takes on much greater significance for developers of autonomous transport solutions worldwide. NEOM will have no traditional road transport, and both residents and logistics firms will rely on autonomous electric transport, making it a key global testbed for transport technologies in the years to come.
Navya currently has six operational driverless shuttle buses in the Kingdom, being operated by SAPTCO. The bus company is running an extended trial of Navya's Autonom Shuttle Evo AVs at NEOM, which just might be the first deployment of Navya shuttles on the open road. The trial is being run by SAPTCO's own Navya-trained engineers and operators, with the support of team members from Navya itself. Meanwhile, Navya has been advertising for a Middle East Operations Manager, to be based in Tabuk.
So far, autonomous vehicle manufacturers have really been just jostling for position in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the #GCC . The number of operational driverless shuttles in the Kingdom remains very low, but wider adoption could accelerate both usage and competition. Any manufacturer that can gain early market share, will also secure a good source of valuable operational data and perhaps a market worthy of more R&D focus. However, the winners may gain even more than that.
Navya sold just 23 Autonom Shuttles in 2020 and 19 in 2021. However, a long-term commitment by NEOM alone could fill the startup's order book, allowing it to take production to the next level. Perhaps, even creating an opportunity to move some of that production to NEOM itself.
Find our more about this story:
New draft regulations shared in advance of Saudi data law
Last September, #Saudi Arabia announced that a new Personal Data Protection Law was approved by the Council of Ministers and passed into law by Royal Decree (no. m/19 dated 9/2/1443 AH), for implementation within the next six months. That law is now due to come into effect next Wednesday March 23rd, although we can expect a long transition period as regulations are fine-tuned, commercial and government sectors are skilled up and enforcement procedures are worked out.?
The first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, the new data law aims to ensure that users have control over the collection, processing and usage of their personal data by third parties. The law covers all data that might be used to identify individual users directly or indirectly, including contact details, personal records, financial data, images, videos or any other personal data.
One potential area of contention is that the new regulations require that businesses host and process the personal data of residents inside the country. Naturally, many local and international businesses providing services in the Kingdom use cloud services, which are hosted both inside and outside the country. Therefore, businesses using foreign cloud services could be required to seek the approval of authorities on a case-by-case basis if there is a need to transfer personal data to systems hosted outside the country.
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Last week, new draft regulations for the data law were issued by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) via the National Competitiveness Centre's Public Consultation Platform. The public consultation invites organisations that may be affected by the law to make comments on areas of concern before March 25th. With penalties for breaching the data law's regulations reaching an upper limit of SAR 5,000,000 ($1.3m) and even imprisonment, there is certainly a powerful incentive for big organisations to review and comment on the draft data regulations.
Find our more about the Saudi data law:
More News!
Here's some more interesting news from the past week:
Data Law
Drones
Education
Media?
Security
Startups
Urban Mobility
Video of the week!
Watch: NEOM Tech & Digital Holding CEO Joseph Bradley at LEAP 2022
Here's a video of one of the best presentations from last month's #LEAP2022 conference in #Riyadh . Joseph Bradley , CEO of NEOM Tech and Digital Holding, explains how the company is working create a cognititive city which protects its residents data. He also introduces Xverse, a metaverse that willl mirror NEOM's physical development.
Watch the video (8 minutes)
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2 年Great read and so much happening, which is exciting. Thank you Carrington Malin ??