Abu Dhabi’s Bayanat, UK’s Oxa ink pact to drive innovation in self-driving technology in UAE

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) listed Bayanat and British autonomous technology solutions provider Oxa have partnered to advance the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle solutions in the UAE and beyond. Hasan Al Hosani, Managing Director of Bayanat, has said the collaboration aims to create solutions to enhance the safety of using self-driving transport in urban areas.

The companies said in a statement that the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) supported the collaboration under its Smart and Autonomous Vehicle Industry (SAVI) cluster.

Bayanat, an AI-powered geospatial and intelligent mobility solutions provider, and Oxa inaugurated the partnership at Oxa’s headquarters in Oxford, UK.

“The collaboration will leverage Bayanat’s extensive AI-powered geospatial analytics capabilities and expertise in running autonomous vehicles alongside Oxa’s cutting-edge autonomous vehicle technologies to create innovative solutions for smart cities and autonomous transportation systems,” the company said in a statement listed on ADX.

Abu Dhabi’s SAVI cluster, launched in 2023, creates a leading smart and autonomous vehicles hub in the MENA region to promote significant contributions across air, land and sea mobility applications.

Abu Dhabi mobility centre of excellence

The partnership also explored the creation of an Autonomous Mobility Centre of Excellence in Abu Dhabi and looks to promote the hiring and nurturing of local talent, including software, hardware, and operations engineers, data scientists, legal professionals, and general support staff.

Al Hosani of Bayanat said, “By combining our expertise in geospatial analytics and operational capabilities in AV with Oxa’s leadership in autonomous vehicle technology, we are poised to create groundbreaking solutions that will enhance mobility, safety, and efficiency in urban areas.”

Meanwhile, Gavin Jackson, Oxa's CEO, said the company would use the knowledge it gained from its existing commercial deployments in the US to accelerate the adoption of autonomy across multiple use cases. Jackson said, “As a B2B company, we look for partners who have the vision and capabilities to help us bring our world-class autonomy solutions to a wide range of companies—and Bayanat and ADIO are those partners.”

He added, “We are also excited about the strong technical talent pool in the region, fostered by the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and SAVI, both of which will help us further develop our strong cohort of highly-skilled engineers, including at our planned base in Abu Dhabi."

Nayef Shahin, Director of Innovation and Knowledge at ADIO, said, “When ADIO launched the SAVI cluster last year, our objective was to create a platform in Abu Dhabi that would connect the greatest global and local mobility innovators to pioneer new exciting pathways for the future of land, air and sea transport.”