Uber Expands Robotaxi Service to Downtown Abu Dhabi with WeRide

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Commercial robotaxi service continues to expand in city after city. In Abu Dhabi, Uber and WeRide just expanded driverless commercial robotaxi service into downtown.

WeRide and Uber launched robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi a little more than a year ago. With this expansion into downtown, the partners now serve about 70% of the city’s core areas, according to the news release, up from about 50%. The fleet has also quadrupled since their December 2024 launch. However, the exact number is not shared — just that WeRide now has more than 200 robotaxis operating in the Middle East.

WeRide and Uber intend to have 1,200 robotaxis in operation in the Middle East — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Riyadh — by 2027.

“The newly expanded service operates across Khalifa City, Masdar City, Rabdan, and routes between Corniche Road and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, in partnership with the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC). Within the coverage area are major landmarks such as Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and popular hotels along Corniche Road, including Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel & Residences; InterContinental Abu Dhabi by IHG; Edition Hotel, Abu Dhabi; Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental Rixos Marina Abu Dhabi; and Radisson Blu Hotel & Resort, Abu Dhabi Corniche,” the companies share.

“WeRide maintains a 4-year first mover advantage in autonomous vehicle deployment in Abu Dhabi, having operated Robotaxis in Abu Dhabi since 2021. In 2023, it became the first company in the UAE to receive a national license covering all types of self-driving vehicles, authorizing autonomous testing and operation on public roads across the country, subject to emirate-level approvals. In December 2024, WeRide and Uber launched their Robotaxi ride-hailing partnership in Abu Dhabi — the largest commercial Robotaxi service outside the US and China.”

So, while most of the robotaxi news we get is from the US, where robotaxis are scaling up fairly fast through Waymo, and China, where it’s scaling up even faster through various Chinese robotaxi companies, we can see that there’s strong interest in leading on the tech deployment in the UAE.

WeRide has also recently launched with various partners in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai. And Uber & WeRide plan to partner in at least 15 cities in the coming few years. Uber has also been partnering with Waabi and Waymo on robotaxis.