A year after launching a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company Veride and partner Uber can finally call that service driverless.
The companies said the commercial robotaxi service, which will no longer have a human safety operator behind the wheel, is open to the public and will begin with routes on Yas Island, a tourist district that is home to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 racing circuit.
The robotaxi operation in Abu Dhabi will work 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 Verid robotaxi. Riders who want to increase their chances of connecting with a fully autonomous vehicle can select the “Autonomous” option in the Uber app. Uber and Veride are also working with fleet operator partner Tawasul.
The launch comes a month after WeRide received a federal permit from the UAE to operate fully driverless robotaxi commercial operations. WeRide and Uber plan to expand driverless services to cover additional areas in Abu Dhabi’s city centre.
“Today’s fully autonomous launch in Abu Dhabi represents a historic transportation milestone, marking the first driverless AV deployment outside the US or China,” Sarfaraz Maredia, Uber’s head of autonomous mobility and delivery, said in a statement.
Uber has partnered with 20 autonomous vehicle technology companies in various countries over the past two years, including the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
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Those partnerships have expanded beyond the scope of robotaxis. Uber’s deals cover the full range of self-driving applications, including delivery and trucking. This year alone, it announced partnerships with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May Mobility and Volkswagen, Chinese self-driving firms Momenta, Pony.AI, and Baidu, as well as a recent deal to create a premium robotaxi service using Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with San Francisco-based startup Nuro’s self-driving system.
These deals are finally beginning to materialize into commercial services. For example, Uber and Waymo launched a robotaxi service in Austin earlier this year. Now, Uber has expanded into the Middle East with Veride in Abu Dhabi – with more cities to come, including Dubai.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi estimated in the company’s third-quarter earnings report that at least 10 cities will have autonomous vehicle deployments on the Uber network by the end of 2026.
Uber and WeRide have previously shared plans to expand to 15 cities across the Middle East and Europe, eventually scaling up thousands of robotaxis. This would represent a huge leap for WeRide, which has more than 150 robotaxis in the region today.
