Dubai plans taxi that skips the driver, and the roads

New York

LIKE a scene from The Jetsons, commuters in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, may soon climb aboard automated flying taxis, soaring over busy streets and past the desert city's gleaming skyscrapers, all - quite literally - at the push of a button.

Passenger drones, capable of carrying a single rider and a small suitcase, will begin buzzing above the emirate as early as July, according to the director of the city's transportation authority, part of an ambitious plan to increase driverless technology.