News
Riyadh’s KAFD To Launch Driverless Monorail By 2027
Saudi planners envisage smarter, more sustainable public transport as the King Abdullah Financial District monorail moves into gear.
Following the construction of the Riyadh Metro, another ambitious transport project is on track for the capital. The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is preparing to add a driverless monorail, designed to improve mobility within one of the city’s most modern business hubs.
Currently in its design stage, the 3.6 km network is expected to be started in late 2025. A consortium including CRRC, CRRC Nanjing Puzhen, and Hassan Allam is driving the project, which was first revealed in October 2023.
Trials are scheduled for early 2027, with public services set to follow later in the year. Once complete, the monorail will be able to move around 3,500 passengers per hour across a circular elevated track. The system will run six two-carriage trains, linking six stations throughout the financial district. Integration with the Riyadh Metro is also planned, making the new line part of a wider mobility ecosystem.
The design emphasizes sustainability and efficiency. Equipped with a fully autonomous driving system, the monorail will reduce congestion inside KAFD while offering quick access between the district’s landmark towers. For the King Abdullah Financial District Development and Management Company (KAFD DMC), the project is positioned as a core part of Vision 2030, supporting Riyadh’s transformation into a global financial and investment hub.
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The success of the Riyadh Metro underlines the importance of affordable, reliable public transport. Since launching in December 2024, the metro has already carried over 100 million riders in under nine months. With punctuality at nearly 99.8% and KAFD emerging as a key interchange, the metro has quickly become central to Riyadh’s new transport network.
The upcoming monorail builds on that momentum, promising a next-generation link that will make navigating the financial district faster, smarter, and more sustainable.
News
Noon And Yango Switch On Robot Deliveries In Dubai
The rollout folds autonomous couriers into noon’s rapid-delivery network as the UAE tests everyday autonomy.
Noon and Yango Group have signed an agreement to put autonomous robot deliveries into commercial use in Dubai, turning Yango’s earlier pilots into a daily service for noon Minutes orders. The launch in Sobha Hartland is the first full integration of Yango Autonomy’s electric robots with a major e-commerce network in the region, with wider deployment planned across Dubai and, later, other GCC markets.
Residents can choose a robot at checkout, track it in the app and unlock its compartment once it arrives. The hardware runs on Yango’s AI navigation and routing stack, which plans paths, avoids obstacles and yields to pedestrians. The units had already covered more than 1,500 kilometers during previous Dubai pilots, a test bed that demonstrated their ability to operate in mixed pedestrian environments and dense residential streets.
The rollout adds a contactless option to noon’s last-mile network and is positioned as extra capacity during peak periods. “Partnering with Yango Group lets us bring a future-ready delivery option straight to our customers,” said Ali Kafil-Hussain, noon’s Chief Business Officer. Noon has used Minutes to set rapid-delivery expectations in UAE cities; autonomous units now slot into that same high-frequency model.
Regulatory clearance from Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority underpins the move. The RTA authorized Yango’s robots to operate on public walkways and in neighborhoods, smoothing the shift from controlled trials to commercial work. Dubai has framed autonomous mobility as part of its smart-city buildout, and the partners lean on that agenda to accelerate integration.
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For Yango, the partnership is an anchor for its autonomy platform in the Gulf. Islam Abdul Karim, Yango’s Middle East regional head, said the aim is to make autonomous delivery an “everyday, reliable service” for UAE communities. The company views operational data from early districts as the basis for scaling into more communities and, eventually, cross-border rollouts.
The move lands as Gulf retailers search for faster fulfilment and lower-emission logistics. Autonomous couriers remain a small share of last-mile delivery, but Dubai’s approvals and early usage data give the partners a clearer path to turn pilots into durable infrastructure.
