WeRide Companions with Uber to Present Robotaxis in Dubai

Final Up to date on: 18th June 2025, 01:45 am

Whereas the US market focuses on Waymo and Tesla a lot of the time when monitoring and discussing robotaxis, the actual fact is, there are robotaxis in operation outdoors the US already as properly. One firm creating such car is WeRide. We have now lined WeRide quite a few occasions previously, and I’ll come again to that, however the newest information is that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in addition to Uber with a purpose to progress robotaxis within the space.

If WeRide sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of we’ve written about it a number of occasions, together with just lately. It expanded into 15 extra cities a couple of month in the past. The corporate launched robotaxis in Abu Dhabi about 6 months in the past. The corporate has additionally deployed autonomous streetsweepers in Singapore.

How good WeRide’s autonomous autos are, I don’t actually know. However they’re apparently ok for Uber to make use of them within the UAE. Which means one thing. (Although, we’re speaking about pilot operations with security drivers on board.)

“We’re accelerating our worldwide growth, with the Center East as a strategic precedence. Final month, we expanded our partnership with Uber to roll out Robotaxis in 15 further cities over the following 5 years, with cities within the Center East into consideration, and now, formalized our collaboration with Uber and the RTA to carry autonomous autos to Dubai by means of this MoU,” Jennifer Li, CFO and Head of Worldwide at WeRide, said with the announcement. “We’re totally aligned with the Dubai Authorities’s bold imaginative and prescient to make 25% of all transportation journeys autonomous by 2030, and are proud to help this aim with our superior expertise and world expertise.”

His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Director Basic, Chairman of the Board of Government Administrators of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority, added: “The introduction of autonomous autos in Dubai represents a big leap in the direction of a sensible and sustainable future for mobility, in step with the imaginative and prescient of our management to remodel Dubai into the world’s smartest metropolis. It additionally helps the goals of the Dubai Good Self-Driving Transport Technique, which seeks to transform 25% of all mobility journeys within the emirate into autonomous journeys throughout numerous transport modes by 2030. This MoU reinforces Dubai’s world management in adopting superior and sustainable transport options, embracing state-of-the-art applied sciences, and fostering revolutionary mobility initiatives.”

Frans Hiemstra, Regional Basic Supervisor, MEA at Uber mentioned: “At Uber, we’re constructing the way forward for transportation, one we see as autonomous, electrical, and shared. As we speak we’re thrilled to ink our partnership with RTA to carry autonomous car operations within the UAE by launching in Dubai in 2025, beginning with WeRide as our first expertise accomplice. This strategic collaboration anchors our dedication to make autonomous autos extra accessible to folks around the globe and we’re excited to carry this expertise to 1000’s of riders in Dubai later this yr.”

Waymo’s doing properly in California and, more and more, different US areas. Just a few Chinese language robotaxi firms are doing properly in China. How briskly can WeRide broaden within the UAE, or the Center East extra broadly, and lock that area down for itself? Or — are considered one of these firms head and shoulders above the others and simply going to return put them out of enterprise as soon as they get round to a lot broader growth? Properly, WeRide already has autonomous driving permits in China, the USA, the UAE, Singapore, and France. Nevertheless, operations are nonetheless comparatively small.