RTA plans AI control for all Dubai traffic lights by early 2027
Every traffic signal in Dubai is to be linked to the RTA's control centre in Al Barsha by early 2027, where AI will adjust signal timings to cut congestion at junctions by at least 10 per cent, the authority says.
Waiting at a red light with an empty road ahead may soon be rarer in Dubai. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) says it will connect every traffic signal in the emirate to its traffic control centre in Al Barsha by early 2027, and let artificial intelligence adjust the timings as traffic builds or eases.
The plan was set out on 6 November by Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, Chief Executive Officer of the RTA's Corporate Technology Support Services Sector, speaking on Noor Dubai Radio's Live Broadcast programme. The system will use the cameras and traffic management systems already on Dubai's roads. AI will read how vehicles are moving, predict where congestion and bottlenecks are likely to form, and change signal timings on the spot. The RTA expects this to reduce congestion at traffic signals by at least 10 per cent. The control centre in Al Barsha already oversees traffic across the emirate in coordination with Dubai Police.
The signals are one part of the RTA's updated artificial intelligence strategy, launched at the start of November, which covers 41 areas of the authority's work. According to Bahrozyan, the strategy is split into six phases: the first two are under way and the other four are due over the next two years, with AI built into all 41 areas within two and a half years. The strategy is reviewed every six months to a year.
Drivers will also notice changes away from the road. The RTA plans to move more than half of its operations and services to AI assistants over the next two years, with AI agents handling online transactions such as paying traffic fines, renewing vehicle registration and renewing driving licences. The authority, which manages assets worth more than Dh150 billion, also expects AI monitoring to cover up to five times more of those assets than today and to add more than Dh300 million in value a year.
For drivers, nothing changes yet: the signals keep working as they do now while the connections are made, and the RTA has given early 2027 as the date for every junction to be linked. There is nothing to sign up for and no cost to motorists. The online services mentioned, fines, registration and licence renewal, stay on the RTA app and website in the meantime; the authority has not given a date for when AI agents will take them over.