Two of Dubai’s most recognizable coastal neighborhoods are now being served by fully autonomous taxis, as the Roads and Transport Authority officially kicked off commercial operations in Umm Suqeim and Jumeirah through separate partnerships with WeRide and Apollo Go.
Residents and visitors can hail WeRide vehicles through the Uber app, with Tawasul Transport handling fleet management on the ground. Apollo Go, a Baidu subsidiary, runs its service through its own app in coordination with the Dubai Taxi Company.
The initial phase puts 100 self-driving vehicles into active circulation, with the number expected to grow in step with demand and the city’s broader push toward automated transport.
Before public deployment, the autonomous vehicles underwent road trials across designated Dubai routes to test system reliability under real traffic conditions. The vehicles rely on high-definition mapping, deep learning, and AI-driven decision systems to navigate intersections, respond to traffic signals, and share roads with conventional vehicles while remaining within traffic regulations.
The combined operational history behind the two platforms is substantial — over 150 million kilometres logged and more than 10 million completed autonomous trips across multiple cities, a record the RTA cited as foundational to the scalable commercial model now being applied in Dubai.
The rollout advances the goals of the Dubai Self-Driving Transport Strategy, which sets a target for autonomous vehicles to handle a significant share of the emirate’s total transport trips in the coming decades.
