News

Dubai Used Car Buyers To Get Instant Access To Accident History

AI technology will soon generate immediate vehicle history reports for prospective buyers with zero human intervention.

Published

2 years ago

June 13, 2024

dubai used car buyers to get instant access to accident history

Prospective second-hand car buyers in Dubai will soon be able to check a vehicle’s accident history in real-time, according to an announcement by the emirate’s police force. Law enforcement officials recently explained that a new system will use artificial intelligence (AI) to help buyers gain access to valuable data about crashes a car has been involved in, as well as its current mechanical condition.

Dubai Police have also announced the integration of AI into 29 administrative operations across multiple departments, with minor accidents also set to be analyzed and logged by AI-powered algorithms.

dubai police employs new ai features

Currently, Dubai drivers submit accident details for manual review by a police officer before a report is created. The new technology will instead use AI to analyze accident details and issue reports to both parties involved in minor traffic incidents.

It’s believed that the new tech could reduce accident report processing times from seven hours to four, and the service will soon be available on the Dubai Police app and through its web portal.

Also Read: Tumodo & Tabby Drive Innovation In The UAE’s Travel Market

Major-General Khalid Nasser Alrazooqi, director of Dubai Police’s AI department, said the force has updated its app to offer 70 services in seven languages. Local police officers even have a virtual team member called Amna, who holds the rank of first lieutenant and is able to answer queries in Arabic and English. In 2023, Amna had already completed 20,000 conversations with the public.

As Dubai continues to deploy smart technology to improve its infrastructure, law enforcement is becoming increasingly automated. Since the beginning of this year, an AI-powered Smart Police Station (SPS) has operated without human officers, receiving 127,515 visitors and processing 36,376 transactions.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.