Uber Technologies rolled out driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi in partnership with Chinese autonomous-driving firm WeRide on November 26, following the tie-up announced by the businesses in 2024.
Abu Dhabi will become the first city outside the United States to host fully driverless operations on Uber’s platform. Passengers who book an UberX or Uber Comfort ride can be matched with a WeRide robotaxi, according to the ride-hailing company.
The companies are also planning to expand coverage to areas beyond Abu Dhabi city core by the end of 2025. The Guangzhou-based WeRide currently operates over 100 robotaxis in the Middle East. The launch comes a month after the Chinese venture secured a federal permit from the UAE to conduct fully driverless robotaxi commercial operations.
Since 2023, Uber has been stitching partnerships with autonomous vehicle technology companies in various countries, including the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. And some of those tie-ups have expanded beyond the realm of robotaxis as well.
“Uber’s deals span the full range of self-driving applications, including delivery and trucking. In 2025 alone, it announced partnerships with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May Mobility and Volkswagen, Chinese self-driving firms Momenta, Pony.ai, and Baidu, as well as a recent deal to create a premium robotaxi service using Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with a self-driving system from San Francisco-based startup Nuro,” TechCrunch reported.
These deals are finally beginning to materialise into commercial services. For instance, Uber and Waymo launched a robotaxi service in early 2025 in Austin. Now, Uber has expanded to the Middle East with WeRide in Abu Dhabi, with even more cities to come, including Dubai.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi forecast in the company’s Q3 earnings report that there would be autonomous vehicle deployments on the Uber network in at least 10 cities by the end of 2026. Uber and WeRide have previously shared plans to expand to 15 cities throughout the Middle East and Europe, eventually scaling to thousands of robotaxis.
Image Credit: Uber