Uber and WeRide launch robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi

Passenger transport giant Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide have launched a industrial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi. The launch marks Uber’s first international autonomous vehicle offering.

Uber partners with autonomous vehicle corporations across all sectors, including passenger transportation, delivery and trucking. Other partners include Wayve, Serve Robotics, Aurora Innovation, Waabi and others.

Still, investors fear that current market operators resembling Uber is not going to give you the chance to compete with corporations creating this technology, resembling Waymo and potentially Tesla. on Thursday, Uber shares almost fell 10% after Waymo announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in Miami – despite the incontrovertible fact that a real disruption of the passenger transportation industry like autonomous vehicles will take years and that Uber could also be one in every of the applications through which passengers will eventually switch to robotaxi.

According to an Uber spokesman, the launch of Uber with WeRide, which went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange at the top of October, will likely be intimate. Neither Uber nor WeRide provided information on what number of vehicles initially hit the streets of Abu Dhabi. The initial deployment will likely be between Saadiyat and Yas Islands and on routes to and from Zayed International Airport, with future expansion planned.

Each vehicle will initially have an operator on board to make sure safety, with a completely autonomous industrial launch scheduled for later in 2025.

Uber and WeRide will partner with local Tawasul Transport to operate the fleet.