Prime Highlights
- Al Qama said the initiative reflects Dubai’s commitment to becoming a global logistics hub by turning technologies into solutions with real impact.
- Newman said the joint venture will enable new levels of efficiency, reliability and safety for industrial vehicle fleet operators.
Key Facts
- SHIFFT is a joint venture between Dubai Future Foundation and Oxa, launched under Dubai’s Research, Development and Innovation Ecosystem.
- The venture’s first phase will target autonomous vehicle solutions for ports and airports, with commercial deployment planned in Dubai by the end of 2027.
Background
Dubai Future Foundation announced this week that it has partnered with global robotic vehicle technology company Oxa to launch a joint venture focused on autonomous logistics solutions, as the emirate looks to strengthen its position as a hub for intelligent transport.
The new venture, named SHIFFT, was launched under the Dubai Research, Development and Innovation Ecosystem. It will serve as a platform for developing, testing and validating autonomous logistics technologies, turning emerging innovations into commercially deployable solutions across the logistics sector.
Dubai Future Foundation said the venture would support the objectives of the Dubai Economic Agenda, including the goal of doubling the emirate’s foreign trade by 2033. SHIFFT will integrate autonomous driving technologies into a logistics platform combining autonomous operations with worksite data collection and operational intelligence, allowing deployment across industrial environments.
The initiative’s first phase will focus on developing autonomous vehicle solutions for ports and airports, with the partners aiming to launch the first commercial deployment in Dubai before the end of 2027.
Khalifa Al Qama, Chief of Dubai’s RDI Ecosystem, said the lab aimed to develop intelligent logistics solutions that create economic opportunities while accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies. He said the initiative reflected Dubai’s commitment to strengthening its position as a global logistics hub by turning promising technologies into solutions with real economic and operational impact.
Paul Newman, founder and CEO of Oxa, said the joint venture would accelerate the development and commercial deployment of industrial mobile autonomy technologies, enabling greater efficiency, reliability and safety for operators of industrial vehicle fleets. He added that SHIFFT would use configurable autonomous driving software, cloud-based fleet management systems and specialised autonomy hardware designed to integrate with existing industrial vehicles.
