Uber and WeRide Launch First Driverless Robotaxi Service Outside the U.S. and China
Service begins on Yas Island after WeRide secures UAE’s federal permit for autonomous operations.
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Chinese autonomous driving company WeRide and Uber have switched on fully driverless commercial robotaxi operations in Abu Dhabi, marking the first such deployment outside the U.S. and China. The move comes a year after the companies began offering a pilot version of the service with safety operators on board, and follows WeRide’s receipt of a federal permit from the UAE authorizing fully autonomous commercial operations.
The service launches on Yas Island, a high-visibility testing ground that hosts the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, entertainment complexes, and research sites. Uber riders selecting UberX or Uber Comfort may now be matched with a WeRide robotaxi; a dedicated “Autonomous” option boosts users’ chances of receiving a driverless vehicle.
Fleet operations are being managed in partnership with Tawasul, a regional mobility operator. WeRide and Uber say they will expand coverage into Abu Dhabi’s more densely populated city center over the coming months.
For Uber, the launch signals progress toward integrating third-party autonomous vehicle (AV) systems across its global network—a strategy the company has increasingly relied on since spinning off its own self-driving unit in 2020.
Over the past two years, Uber has brokered partnerships with about 20 AV developers worldwide, spanning robotaxis, delivery robots, and autonomous trucking. These include deals with Waymo, May Mobility, Volkswagen, Momenta, Pony.ai, Baidu, and Nuro, as well as a premium robotaxi service planned using Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with Nuro’s self-driving hardware.
Many of these alliances are now advancing into commercial deployment. The Abu Dhabi launch creates a parallel beachhead in the Middle East, with further rollouts expected in Dubai and additional regional cities.
WeRide, for its part, gains a critical regulatory and commercial milestone in its effort to scale outside China. The company currently operates more than 150 robotaxis across the Middle East but has ambitions—shared with Uber—to expand to 15 cities across the Middle East and Europe, eventually deploying thousands of autonomous vehicles.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has projected AV deployments in at least 10 cities by 2026, signaling that Uber sees autonomy not as a distant experiment but as a near-term operational shift.
