Dubai: where it’s good to be a drone – The National

Dubai: where it’s good to be a drone – The National

Unmanned aerial vehicles will take centre stage in the battle against Covid-19, and Dubai will be their theatre















There is talk from practically every part of the globe over how the Covid-19 pandemic will accelerate trends we were seeing prior to this scourge: automation, remote work and telemedicine, to name a few, are all making leaps, condensing years of innovation and investment into the wild year that is 2020.



While it can be difficult to discern the signal from the noise, Dubai's announcement this week to establish a drone delivery network is a clear signal.



"If you came to me three months ago and said Dubai would have an airport network and ground control infrastructure for drones, I would have said five years from now, maybe," Rabih Rashid, the founder of Dubai's Falcon Eye Drones Services, told me this week.



But the need for social distancing to reduce human interaction changed the script, he said, and now there is new urgency.







Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid visits Dubai Future Labs.







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What if, for example, Dubai's Al Ras were ever to go into a full,