Uber and WeRide’s robo-taxi service in Abu Dhabi has officially gone driverless

A year after the launch of A Trading robots service In Abu Dhabi, Chinese self-driving vehicle technology company WeRide and its partner Uber could finally launch this driverless service.

The commercial taxi service, which will no longer have a human safety operator behind the wheel, is open to the public and will start with routes on Yas Island, a tourist area home to the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit, the companies said.

Robotaxi’s operations in Abu Dhabi will operate similarly to Uber’s partnership with Waymo in Austin.

Uber riders who choose Uber Comfort or UberX in Abu Dhabi can be matched with a robotaxi from WeRide. Riders who want to increase their chances of getting a fully self-driving car can select the “Self-Drive” option in the Uber app. Uber and WeRide are also working with fleet operator partner Tawasul.

The launch comes a month after WeRide obtained a federal permit from the UAE to conduct commercial operations of driverless robotaxis. WeRide and Uber plan to expand self-driving services to cover additional areas in downtown Abu Dhabi.

“Today’s fully autonomous launch in Abu Dhabi represents a major milestone in the transportation space, as the first deployment of self-driving vehicles outside the United States or China,” Sarfaraz Maredia, head of mobility and self-delivery at Uber, said in a statement.

Uber has spent the past two years partnering with 20 self-driving vehicle technology companies in various countries, including the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

These partnerships have expanded beyond the world of taxis as well. Uber’s offerings include a full range of self-driving applications, including delivery and trucking. This year alone, it announced partnerships with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May navigation and VolkswagenAnd Chinese self-driving companies Momenta, Pony.ai and Baidu, in addition to a recent deal to create a self-driving car. Outstanding robotaxi service Using self-driving-equipped Lucid Gravity SUVs from San Francisco-based startup Nuro.

These deals are finally starting to turn into commercial services. For example, Uber and Waymo launched robo-taxis earlier this year in Austin. Now, Uber has expanded into the Middle East with WeRide in Abu Dhabi – with more cities to come, including Dubai.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi predicted in the company’s third-quarter earnings report that there will be deployments of self-driving vehicles on the Uber network. In at least 10 cities By the end of 2026.

Uber and WeRide have previously shared plans to expand into 15 cities across the Middle East and Europe, eventually expanding to thousands of robo-taxis. This would represent a huge leap for WeRide, which today has more than 150 robotaxis in the region.