UAE driving licence: Parking tests become fully automated

Taking a yard test for your driver's licence in Dubai has now become a "100 per cent" automated process. This means that your skills in parallel, side and garage parking and sudden braking will be judged by cameras and sensors installed in 'smart vehicles'.

Drivers in Dubai take three driving tests: Theoretical, yard and road.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said the technology assesses the five-manoeuvre yard test and matches the moves automatically to the approved testing standards - without human intervention. "It reduces the error margin in taking the 'pass' or 'fail' decision ... It also improves safety, thanks to the use of technology to avoid accidents," said Khaled Alsalehi, director of drivers training and qualification department. "The system has been applied to 15 testing yards in Dubai, and 108,603 smart testing processes have been completed."

The yard is fitted with five surveillance cameras - four outside the testing vehicle to guide the examinee and one on board to verify his/her identity.

"The smart yard initiative has helped the RTA overcome another challenge: Some examinees claiming that results of their tests were sometimes impacted by different perceptions of examiners about mistakes. The technology in place now eliminates this issue as it takes impartial decisions that cannot be challenged," Alsalehi added.