NEOM forms eVTOL joint venture with Volocopter; and more Middle East AI News

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More urban mobility news from the Middle East this week, as German electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft manufacturer Volocopter establishes a joint venture with Saudi mega-city development, NEOM. Meanwhile, Khalifa University begins a trial of a driverless shuttle bus on campus, using some of the technology developed in its own labs.

The UAE government has also confirmed this week that the country's new data protection law will come into effect in January. It remains to be seen how much time will be allowed for the business sector to achieve compliance. The EU gave organisations about two years to comply with GDPR ((General Data Protection Regulation) before enforcing any penalties.

Read more about these stories and more in this week's newsletter!

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/Carrington

Middle East AI News – 02-Dec-21

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NEOM forms urban air mobility joint venture with Volocopter

NEOM, the futuristic mega-city development in northwestern #Saudi Arabia, has formed an urban air mobility joint venture with German aircraft?manufacturer, Volocopter GmbH. The new company will design, implement, and operate the world’s first bespoke public vertical mobility system in NEOM. The joint venture will initially be the sole operator of public transit routes across the city, eventually enabling an open electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) ecosystem for vertical mobility services.

The NEOM joint venture is the first concrete deal in the Middle East for the eVTOL company and it says that this includes a confirmed order for 15 aircraft to commence initial flight operations within the next 2-3 years. Volocopter carried out test flights in Dubai in cooperation with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in 2017, but the authority's urban air mobility plans are dependent on new legislation for UAVs currently under development. The eVTOL pioneer has also been laying the groundwork for an air taxi service in Singapore for the past few years.?

Volocopter announced in September that it would sell 150 eVTOLs to its joint venture in #China with a unit of automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which is also an equity investor in the German company. China is the urban air mobility industry's single biggest country market opportunity and Volocopter aims to deliver the aircraft to China within the next three to five years as air taxi services are introduced.

The Saudi joint venture will develop air taxi and vertical logistics services that will be fully integrated with the overall multi-modal and zero-emission public transit system in NEOM. Ten of the initial eVTOL aircraft will carry passengers, while five will be used for freight logistics. Volocopter's VoloDrone is designed to carry payloads weighing up to 200 kilograms, over a 40-kilometer range. Over a period of time, the joint venture company will develop an ecosystem that enables vertical mobility services for logistics, emergency response and tourism.?

Find out more about Volocopter and NEOM:

• Read the NEOM-Volocopter press release here: https://lnkd.in/d_VEUKuh?
• Read more about NEOM's urban mobility goals: https://lnkd.in/gGAjnwqW

Khalifa University deploys driverless campus shuttle

Khalifa University has deployed an autonomous 12-seater shuttle bus on its Sas Al Nakhl (SAN) Campus in #AbuDhabi, in another UAE AV initiative. There have now been a number of autonomous vehicle trials in Abu Dhabi, #Ajman, #Dubai and #Sharjah. However, it's noteworthy that this autonomous vehicle uses technology actually developed by the university's Autonomous Vehicles Lab.

The Khalifa University Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (KU-CARS) is developing a variety of research projects including a jointly developed KU-Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) self-driving car prototype. KU and KAIST launched joint smart transportation research projects in 2019. Last month, two teams from Khalifa University took first and second place for their innovative ground vehicle and drone concepts at the 2nd Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport. Meanwhile, the university recently won the right to host the Middle East’s first-ever IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), one of the world’s key robotics research conferences, in Abu Dhabi in 2024.

Khalifa University's new driverless shuttle will transport students and staff around the SAN Campus in a mixed road traffic environment, sharing the road with conventional road transport. The AV detects and avoids potential obstacles using onboard sensors, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) cameras, GPS, odometry and inertial measurement units. The AV shuttle is also equipped with onboard Wi-Fi to capture data generated during operation.

Find out more about Khalifa University's AV research:

• Read the university's driverless shuttle press release: https://lnkd.in/g8QvJcmp
• Learn about KU-CARS: https://lnkd.in/gicNJKF7

New UAE Data Law to come into force in January

First announced in September, it has been confirmed by the #UAE government that the new federal data protection law (“?????? ???????? ??????”) will come into effect on January 2nd, 2022. The Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 regarding the Protection of Personal Data was issued in September 2021 and as part of a comprehensive legislative reform project, which either amends or enacts over 40 other laws. The law will have far-reaching impact on the collection and use of personal data, where previously only specific industry sectors such as banking and healthcare have had legislation governing their use of personal data.

Significantly, the UAE Data Law will have extra-territorial reach, similar to the European Union's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). So, the law will apply those collecting and processing the data of UAE residents within or outside the country itself. Obviously, the law prohibits the processing of personal data without the consent of the individual. The law also requires that organisations collecting data must make it clear why they are collecting data and then limit its use to the purpose(s) disclosed

Given the past few years of rapid growth in adoption of data analytics, the new legislation is going to have an impact on many businesses in the UAE. The commercial sector has often used GDPR as a global guideline to i) ensure that they meet EU requirements and ii) are better prepared for new data protection laws such as this one. However, the data governance policies of many companies rely heavily on website consent forms and disclaimers.?

In order to be able to commit to individuals that their data will only be put to pre-approved uses, data collectors must first ensure that they have the right governance for their whole data supply chain. With many organisations still working on how to connect, share and leverage years worth of data, they will need to have certainty on how it was collected, why it was collected and what purpose data sets are being used for across the business. Expect to see a lot more job ads for data protection officers next year.

Find out more about data protection laws in the UAE:

• Read Clyde & Co.'s summary on the new law: https://lnkd.in/g9GzM8_k
• Read the Emirates News Agency report on the largest legislative reform in UAE history: https://lnkd.in/gEqrJyFW
• Download Clifford Chance's review of data protection in the UAE leading up to the new UAE Data Law: https://lnkd.in/gabHQ3PJ (PDF)

More News!

Here's some other interesting news from the past week:

Industry 4.0

• #UAE - Siemens to evaluate 200 UAE industrial firms for digital maturity (Gulf Business)

Funding

• #Qatar - Qatar First Bank participates as private investor in Silicon Valley AI firm (QFB)

AI Ethics

• #World - UNESCO member states adopt the first ever global agreement on the Ethics of AI (UNESCO)

Sport

• #Qatar - Fifa Arab Cup trials AI offside monitoring (BBC)

Defence

• #Egypt - Egyptian Armed Forces discloses locally-produced drone 'Nut' (Egypt Today)
• #Morocco reportedly will manufacture drones using Israeli technology; buys kamikaze drones (The Media Line)
• #Qatar - Republican senators attempt to block $500mn sale of US drones to Qatar (Doha News)
• #Saudi Arabia using $3 million missile to shoot down $1,000 UAV (Defence View)

Interview of the week!

Watch: NEOM Changemakers talk about Industry 4.0

NEOM Manufacturing Sector Head Vishal Wanchoo discusses the challenges of reimagining manufacturing with #Saudi entrepreneur and engineer Hassan Albalawi. In this fireside chat, the two address the importance of designing with circularity and sustainability in mind, building solutions to enhance lives, and laying the foundation for Industry 4.0.

Watch the video (6 minutes)

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