Uber and WeRide’s robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi is officially driverless

A twelvemonth aft launching a commercial robotaxi service successful Abu Dhabi, Chinese autonomous conveyance exertion institution WeRide and spouse Uber tin yet telephone that work driverless.

The companies said the commercialized robotaxi service, which volition nary longer person a quality information relation down the wheel, is unfastened to the nationalist and volition commencement with routes connected Yas Island, a tourer territory that is location to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 racing circuit.

Image Credits:Uber/WeRide

Robotaxi operations successful Abu Dhabi volition enactment likewise to Uber’s concern with Waymo successful Austin.

Uber riders that prime Uber Comfort oregon UberX successful Abu Dhabi whitethorn beryllium matched with a WeRide robotaxi. Riders who privation to summation their chances of being matched with a afloat autonomous conveyance tin prime the “Autonomous” enactment successful the Uber app. Uber and WeRide are besides moving with fleet relation spouse Tawasul.

The motorboat comes a period aft WeRide secured a national licence from the United Arab Emirates to behaviour afloat driverless robotaxi commercialized operations. WeRide and Uber program to widen driverless services to screen further areas successful Abu Dhabi’s metropolis center.

“Today’s afloat autonomous motorboat successful Abu Dhabi represents a historical proscription milestone, arsenic the archetypal driverless AV deployment extracurricular of the U.S. oregon China,” Sarfraz Maredia, Uber’s caput of autonomous mobility and delivery, said successful a statement.

Uber has spent the past 2 years locking up partnerships with 20 autonomous conveyance exertion companies successful assorted countries, including the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

Those partnerships person expanded beyond the realm of robotaxis arsenic well. Uber’s deals span the afloat scope of self-driving applications, including transportation and trucking. This twelvemonth alone, it announced partnerships with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May Mobility and Volkswagen, Chinese self-driving firms Momenta, Pony.ai, and Baidu, arsenic good arsenic a caller woody to make a premium robotaxi service utilizing Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with a self-driving strategy from San Francisco-based startup Nuro.

These deals are yet opening to materialize into commercialized services. For instance, Uber and Waymo launched a robotaxi work earlier this twelvemonth successful Austin. Now, Uber has expanded to the Middle East with WeRide successful Abu Dhabi — with adjacent much cities to come, including Dubai.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi forecast successful the company’s third-quarter net study that determination would beryllium autonomous conveyance deployments connected the Uber web in astatine slightest 10 cities by the extremity of 2026. 

Uber and WeRide person antecedently shared plans to grow to 15 cities passim the Middle East and Europe, yet scaling to thousands of robotaxis. That would correspond a monolithic leap for WeRide, which contiguous has much than 150 robotaxis successful the region.