DUBAI: While its common for police forces across the world to try and use the latest technologies to help the fight against crime, Dubai's finest have raised more than a few eyebrows with their latest efforts.
Dubai Police revealed in a tweet that hoverbike training has already begun for some of its officers.
The hoverbike - known as an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) vehicle - runs on four upward-facing propellors that extend out from the main, motorbike-like cockpit that the pilot sits on.
Capable of speeds up to 96kph, Dubai Police showed off a video of the Hoversurf S3 taking-off and landing vertically.
Police won't be out on lengthy patrols with this new gadget, however. Hoversurf says its hoverbike has a pilot flight time of just 10 to 25 minutes before needing 2.5 hours to recharge. Its 30-kW motors and 3-bladed carbon-fibre propellers let the rider comfortably hover around 5 metres above the ground.
Brigadier Khalid Alrazooqi, general director of the Dubai Police's artificial intelligence department told US broadcaster CNN that the eVTOL would be used as a first responder unit in hard-to-reach areas.
"Currently we have two crews already training (to pilot the hoverbike) and we're increasing the number," said Alrazooqi.
Despite this, you will still have to wait a little while longer before you see such a vehicle patrolling your streets anytime soon, with Dubai Police aiming to have the eVTOL hoverbikes in action by 2020.
