Uber and WeRide Launch Driverless Robotaxis in Abu Dhabi

Uber and Chinese self-driving company WeRide have turned on the switch that allows new fleets of robotaxis to ferry passengers without human safety operators in Abu Dhabi. The launch takes place on Yas Island, the tourism and events destination which features the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit, and signals big things ahead for the alliance in the Middle East.

What Went Live and Where the Service Is Available

The service has deployed WeRide’s SAE Level 4 test vehicles in a demo zone covering the area on Yas Island. That geography is intentional: a combination of expansive boulevards, modern road infrastructure, and predictable traffic patterns make it an ideal place for early driverless rollouts to concentrate, while still letting companies like Waymo get meaningful rider volume out of area attractions, hotels, and residential complexes.

The companies said the service is open to the public and will be extended beyond Yas Island to Abu Dhabi’s city center as safety and operational data are collected. Uber and WeRide are working with Tawasul, a licensed fleet operator in the emirate, to oversee vehicles and local compliance as the insurance coverage expands.

How Riders in Abu Dhabi Can Hail a Driverless Robotaxi

Abu Dhabi riders in the capital will be able to request an UberX or Uber Comfort ride. For those who would like to increase their chances, there is the Autonomous option that “favors matching you with a self-driving vehicle if one is nearby.” It’s all meant to continue the familiar experience — same app, upfront pricing, and standard pickup flows — while ensuring that autonomy feels like a natural addition to Uber’s current product lineup.

Like Uber’s current integration with Waymo in Austin, the dispatch logic factors in availability, proximity, and route efficiency inside the designated service area. In the beginning, early availability tends to be focused in major areas and during peak hours before getting larger as the fleet expands and the system handles regional traffic edge cases.

Safety Controls and Oversight for Driverless Operations

The companies say services are now “driverless,” with nobody behind the wheel. Consistent with industry practices for Level 4 operations, vehicles are equipped with multi-sensor perception — lidar, radar, and high-resolution cameras — that is augmented by high-definition maps and real-time localization to help plan and execute movements. Tele-assistance: there are generally no operators in remote operations centers that pilot the vehicle; this is restricted to exceptional cases such as road closures or more complex interactions.

WeRide won a federal permit from UAE authorities to carry out fully driverless commercial operations, a regulatory milestone that illustrates how the Emirates is establishing itself as an early player in autonomous transportation. The Integrated Transport Centre in Abu Dhabi has been conducting supervised AV trials for years, and Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority has a headline goal that 25% of journeys would be conducted autonomously by 2030, indicating long-term public-sector support for the technology.

Why Abu Dhabi, a Strategic Proving Ground

Abu Dhabi’s roads are young and well signposted, with strong digital mapping and traffic management systems in place — factors that can eliminate much of the long tail of edge cases that can bog down autonomous deployments in older, more congested cities. Yas Island throws a calm mix of speeds, roundabouts, and event-driven traffic surges at the AI to stress perceptions and route finding without swamping the system.

Crucially, the emirate provides a secure regulatory environment and a single-city-to-federal coordination channel to shorten the route from pilot to paid service. Part of that is policy clarity — another part, infrastructure readiness. It’s one reason AV companies have concentrated pilots in the UAE to go along with work in both the fore- and hinterlands of America.

What It Means for Uber and WeRide in the Middle East

Uber has been quietly amassing a wide-reaching autonomy portfolio, securing partnerships with some 20 self-driving companies for ride-hailing, delivery, and trucking. A few of these are starting to materialize as actual services: the integration with Waymo in Austin and WeRide’s driverless deployment here in Abu Dhabi demonstrate that the marketplace model is taking form. Uber leadership has indicated that self-driving rollouts could see at least 10 cities on its network by the end of 2026, and expand to many more as it gains legal and technological ground.

For WeRide, the transition from supervised pilots to public, commercial driverless rides in the Middle East represents a major leap. Today the company has claimed to be running more than 150 robotaxis in the region and wants to expand that number to “thousands” across up to 15 cities in the Middle East and Europe. Abu Dhabi offers an established reference market and a path for wider expansion into crowded urban centers, and potentially to neighboring Dubai where authorities have stated clear ambitions for autonomy.

The Competitive Context for Global Autonomous Ride-Hailing

Uber and WeRide describe the Abu Dhabi deployment as the largest rollout of driverless AVs outside the U.S. or China, a significant goal in an industry where operators in these two countries have logged most commercial rider-only miles. Definitions of “driverless” and “commercial” can differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the fact that this rollout is public, paid, and integrated into a staple ride-hailing app already sets a real-world precedent for the region.

Next will be proof points of consistency, growth beyond geofenced areas, and transparency around incidents. If Uber and WeRide can continue to demonstrate strong safety while expanding service in Abu Dhabi’s more crowded districts, it will bolster the argument for autonomous ride-hailing as an everyday, viable option in Gulf cities and beyond.