Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced that the yard test or car parking test, the second of three driving tests in order to get a driving licence in Dubai, will now be fully automated through the Smart Yard project without any human intervention.
What does it mean?
The testing car will be fitted with cameras and sensors to read the skills of examinees and match them with RTA approved standards.
The new process will bringing more transparency to the driving test and reduce the margin of error between pass and fail.
Khaled Alsalehi, Director of Drivers Training and Qualification Department at RTA’s Licensing Agency said, “The system has been applied to 15 testing yards in Dubai, and about 108,603 smart testing processes have been completed since the launch of the project.”
“The yard is fitted with five surveillance cameras; four outside the testing vehicle to guide the examinee to the five manoeuvres, and one camera on board to verify the identity of the driver undertaking the test. The vehicle is also fitted with more than 20 sensors to assist the examinee in avoiding a collision when approaching an obstacle.” continued Khaled Alsalehi.
“Cameras and sensors capture the vehicle’s information, such as the use of brakes and safety belt, and relay the test images to an interactive screen at a control tower in the testing yard managed by RTA employee." added Khaled Alsalehi, "At the same time, the test inputs (information and videos) are analysed by a high-speed processor on board the vehicle to assess the driver and decide on the test result (Pass or Fail) without any human intervention.”
“The Smart Yard initiative has helped RTA to overcome another challenge; some examinees claiming that results of their tests were sometimes impacted by different perceptions of examiners about mistakes deemed worthy of re-testing. The technology in place now eliminates this issue as it takes impartial decisions that cannot be challenged,” Khaled Alsalehi added .
The examinee has to pass through three tests to obtain a Driver’s Licence in Dubai, namely the theoretical knowledge test, yard test, and the road test. The yard test comprises of five tests: parallel parking, side parking (60 degrees angle), garage parking, hill, and sudden braking. Examinee needs to pass all the five parking tests to move on to the road test.