RTA Organises AI Coding Hackathon to Advance Innovation and Smart Mobility Solutions

350 Employees Take Part in the Challenge

Dubai. Roads and Transport Authority. 5^th May 2026:

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) organised an AI Vibe Coding Hackathon to advance innovation and develop AI-powered smart mobility solutions. Held at RTA’s Fourth Generation Lab for Emerging Technologies, the hackathon aimed to empower employees to utilise artificial intelligence tools and modern coding technologies in developing practical solutions that support the future of smart mobility, contribute to more efficient and proactive services, and enhance quality of life in the emirate.

The two-day event witnessed strong engagement, with around 350 employees taking part in the practical challenge stages, final presentations, evaluation, announcement of results and distribution of certificates. Participants were divided into 11 teams representing all RTA agencies and sectors.

The hackathon generated 11 proposed solutions and projects addressing the challenge themes of traffic and roads, public transport and internal operations. The proposals reflected the participants’ ability to address corporate challenges and translate them into models and ideas that can be further developed in the future.

The hackathon was linked to several strategic goals related to sustainability, future foresight, enhanced utilisation of RTA assets, operational efficiency, and the delivery of innovative and proactive solutions across all fields. The event also produced several outcomes by generating ideas on the proposed themes using technological enablers such as data science and artificial intelligence.

The hackathon featured two main tracks. The first was the “Business Track”, which targeted non-technical categories and business users, with a focus on non-programming solutions, rapid prototyping and business-related use cases. The second was the “Technical Track for Developers”, which targeted technical talent, with a focus on software applications, rapid modelling and AI-powered technical development.

The hackathon addressed three main challenges centred on operational and service priorities directly related to the transport and mobility sector. The first, “Solving Traffic Congestion Using Artificial Intelligence”, focused on developing ideas for predicting congestion before it occurs, enabling adaptive traffic signal control, and using computer vision to analyse traffic scenes and instantly detect incidents or stopped vehicles.

The second challenge, “Analysing RFPs and Contracts Using Artificial Intelligence”, aimed to accelerate contract reviews, reduce risks, enhance the efficiency of legal and operational teams, extract essential data, and assess how closely companies’ capabilities align with RFP requirements.

The third challenge addressed “Next-Generation Public Transport Solutions”. It focused on developing digital solutions that make the mobility experience easier and clearer for users, such as creating a digital companion to support customers before, during and after their journeys; providing personalised notifications; offering indicators on congestion or comfort levels; delivering guidance during the journey; enabling multilingual options or tourist-friendly features; and introducing tools to measure user satisfaction after the journey.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation process across both tracks was based on precise criteria, including business relevance, measurable impact, feasibility, user experience and trust, AI effectiveness, code quality and architecture. This ensured that the solutions were assessed from a balanced perspective, combining practical value with quality of execution. The evaluation was conducted by a specialised judging panel comprising RTA and supporting partners, after which the challenge winners were honoured.