Kuwait wil be capable of hosting self-driving vehicles thanks to an advanced road scanning system set to be launched by Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) for the first time in the Gulf region. PACI Deputy Director General for information systems and technology Mansour Al-Metthen said that PACI has recently complemented the implementation of Lidar, a highly accurate road and street scanning system, inside Kuwait.
In remarks to KUNA at the 37th GITEX Technology Week Exhibition in Dubai, he said the system also allows the inspection of the length, width and height of surrounding buildings to allow for the future usage of autonomous cars.
The new system depends on field scanning, using specialized vehicles, that roam the streets to specify all of its dimensions, as well as a 360 degree photographic survey of all the country’s roads, he added. This will give Kuwait a “distinguished status” in developed transporting technology, he said. This system is a brand new one in the region and is still under primary examination before being officially introduces by the end of this year, including developed tools that allows all for the state’s institutions and ministries to benefit, especially the Municipality, Interior Ministry, and Ministry of Public Works, he said PACI is also working on “Kuwait Finder “ project that works on inspecting the traffic jam updates, side by side with the “Lider System” which offers high definition photos of Kuwait’s streets from all directions.
This will lay a solid base for launching the self-driving cars, he said. PACI will also launch a new project during the upcoming weeks regarding the statistical information, as they will be reachable by public thorough smart phones and tablets, Al-Metthen added. The statistical information system will offer accurate numbers of the population, and the most populous areas, along with social status information, and all this info would be easily accessed through smart phones sand tablets as well, he said.
PACI has lately offered an electronic signing service that connects between the civil ID and the official signature of the users, which allows them to conduct commercial and banking transactions electronically. The Authority signed with the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) a memorandum of understanding last September, that allows PACI to be a pioneer in initiating such service.