QMIC Holds a Workshop on Connected & Automated Mobility:

QMIC Holds a Workshop on Connected & Automated Mobility:

  • Status of global deployments shared by key international speakers
  • QMIC provided an update about significant progress in Qatar
  • Delegates from more than 20 local and international entities attended

Doha, Qatar

June 6th, 2023:

QMIC hosted a workshop on Connected & Automated Mobility (CAM/V2X), which was held on Tuesday June 6th, at the Sheraton Hotel Doha. This workshop was attended by more than 60 delegates representing about 20 institutions from government entities, private enterprises, universities, and R&D&I organizations who have a common interest in promoting the development and deployment of emerging mobility technologies.  The workshop acted as a platform to get an update about global V2X standards and deployment activities and to learn about the status of development and deployment activities carried out by QMIC and its strategic partners in the last few years.

This workshop featured keynote speeches from renowned global and local experts in the field, a panel discussion, and networking opportunities. Attendees had the opportunity to learn and engage with the experts in the field by sharing their insights and experiences on CAM/V2X.

On this occasion, Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, QMIC’s Executive Director (CEO), commented “Since we started working on V2X as an R&D project in 2010, we have carried out the first large scale technical pilot in the region that involved more than 10 applications in collaboration with local strategic partners that allowed us to gain significant operational knowledge and to validate the viability of our systems and applications.  Hence, QMIC is uniquely positioned to lead in the large scale development and deployment of V2X in the coming years to enhance road safety, improve traffic efficiency, and enable autonomous driving.”

Expert keynote speakers and panelists included: Dr. Maxime Flament, Chief Technology Officer at 5GAA, Dr. Hamid Menouar, Principal R&D & Innovation Lead at QMIC, Dr. Martin Böhm, Technical Director at Austria Tech, Dr. Fethi Filali, Director of Technology & Research at QMIC, and Mr. Firas Mufti, Head of Marketing & CX (Toyota & Lexus) at Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. This workshop provided a platform for these experts to share their comprehensive understanding on topics related to CAM/V2X including

  • How CAM/V2X can enhance road safety, improve traffic operations, and enable autonomous mobility.
  • The status of CAM deployments in Europe, North America, and Asia.
  • The status of CAM piloting and deploying in Qatar.
  • What the role of road operators, vehicle manufacturers, regulators, and more. 

On this occasion, Dr. Hamid Menouar, Principal R&D and Innovation Lead at QMIC, and one of the speakers at the workshop, commented “In Qatar we have already made good efforts in terms of V2X field piloting and testing, which will be leveraged for future expansion plans. These efforts put Qatar road infrastructure ahead in the region in terms of V2X development, readiness and adoption, and this is something that needs to be expanded. The continuation of such efforts can be made by carrying out large scale customer-centric pilots to address different use cases and to start delivering services to road users based on the integration of V2X technologies with the road infrastructure..”

At the conclusion of the workshop, Mr. Omar Mohamed Al-Jaber, “Director of Strategic Partnerships and Outreach” outlined the following recommendations as a result of the workshop:

  1. V2X adoption around the world is progressing rapidly. Hence, in Qatar and in the region, we should get ready for it from infrastructure, operational know-how and regulations viewpoints.
  2. Efforts to digitize the road infrastructure and integrate it with V2X should be expanded and more extensive user-centric pilots are needed. This will speed up the user adoption process
  3. Technology Standardization efforts should be coordinated at the GCC level and V2X spectrum allocation should be finalized to ensure harmonious V2X operations across GCC countries
  4. A national and/or regional authority is needed to ensure the management of security keys.
  5. Investing in R&D and CAM’s user-centric innovations should be expanded to ensure the localization of knowledge and to create a local tech industry in this emerging domain

Furthermore, Omar Al-Jaber said, “we are delighted with the success of the workshop, and the level of engagement from our attendees. QMIC remains committed to fostering collaboration and innovation and looks forward to hosting similar workshops in the future, to continue our efforts as one of Qatar’s most prominent R&D centers”.