China’s WeRide & Uber Launch Robotaxis In Abu Dhabi Amid Waymo & Tesla Growth

WeRide and Uber announced the two have rolled out robotaxis on the roads of Abu Dhabi

The China-based autonomous driving technology company and the globally renowned ridesharing company’s deployment of Level 4 fully driverless commercial operations in the city marks the Middle East’s first driverless deployment, as well as the first city outside the United States to host fully driverless operations on the Uber platform.

This also made WeRide one of the first companies to receive a city-level commercial permit for Level 4 autonomous driving issued outside the U.S., and the first international company to do so in the United Arab Emirates. The permit, which was granted on October 31, allows WeRide’s Robotaxis to operate commercially without an on-board safety driver.

Recently, WeRide also secured a driverless permit to operate on public roads in Switzerland’s Furttal region.

WeRide’s robotaxis will also be available on the TXAI platform, the region's first autonomous ride-hailing service.

Riders can book a WeRide robotaxi through the Uber app when requesting an Uber Comfort or UberX ride, as well as through its new “Autonomous” category.

As per Uber, WeRide possesses more than 100 robotaxis in the Middle East, having begun operations in the region in 2021.


The partnership between the two dates back to December 2024, when they first launched in Abu Dhabi, followed by an expansion covering about half of Abu Dhabi's core areas, and by the end of 2025, the two aim to cover additional areas in Abu Dhabi city's core.

This deployment becomes Uber’s fourth city with driverless robotaxi services, following Austin, Phoenix, and Atlanta, all led by Waymo.

Talking about Waymo, the leading robotaxi service provider in the U.S., is expanding to three new cities in the country:
 

• New Orleans, where it visited last year and “found the Big Easy, easy to navigate.”

• Tampa, where it’s laying the groundwork and bringing a fleet of its all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles in the coming days to test.

• Minneapolis, where it’s already rolled out its mixed fleet of Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr RT vehicles to explore and map out the city.

Over the past few months, the company has been expanding across the U.S. by deploying its robotaxis in Las Vegas, San Diego, and Detroit, adding new cities Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, and growing its reach across the freeways of San Francisco’s Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

Other than U.S. markets, the company has made moves in Japan and London.

In Waymo’s rear-view mirror is Tesla, which has long been excited about the robotaxi industry, but has taken a while to deploy its services.

However, despite a shaky start, the electric vehicle (EV) maker is in the space and growing fast.

Beginning in Austin, Tesla has expanded to the San Francisco Bay Area—and is now plotting another expansion.

However, this won’t come in the form of another city but rather growing its fleet size.

According to a post published by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on X, which is also owned by him, “The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month.”

It might be tough to determine what that exact number will become, since it’s not clear how many robotaxis Tesla operates.

Musk had big ambitions for Tesla this year, saying in October that he expects his robotaxis to operate without safety drivers in Austin sometime this year, and that Tesla would expand to 8 to 10 metropolitan areas by year-end.

He also claimed in July that Tesla robotaxis will serve half the U.S. population by the end of the year.

Do you think Tesla will be able to catch up with Waymo in the U.S.?
Do you think Waymo will be able to catch up with WeRide globally?

Let us know in the comments below!