In Dubai, the self-driving public transportation system has now grown with the addition of Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis on Uber from Thursday, August 20. At first, the services will be made available in the specific operating zones of Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim.
With this initiative, customers of Uber will have the choice of driverless rides without any need of booking through another platform. Customers who make a request for UberX or Uber Comfort rides in the specified areas will be given Apollo Go self-driving cars. Alternatively, the customers looking for a driverless ride can select the “Autonomous” option available on the Uber app.
Dubai is also the first market where the Uber-Baidu autonomous vehicle partnership has moved into live passenger operations. The companies say the emirate will serve as a launch point for their plans to introduce thousands of Apollo Go vehicles across Uber’s international network.
The vehicles operating in Dubai are Baidu’s sixth-generation RT6, an all-electric robotaxi designed for fully driverless operation. Each vehicle can carry up to three passengers and uses more than 30 sensors to detect and interpret its surroundings, supported by onboard real-time data processing.
The fleet is being operated by New Horizon Luxury Transport, while Baidu supplies the autonomous driving technology. Uber said every autonomous vehicle joining its platform must meet its safety requirements before entering service.
Baidu said Apollo Go has already operated in 28 cities worldwide, accumulating more than 350 million autonomous kilometres. More than 240 million of those kilometres were completed without a driver.
The Dubai deployment forms part of Uber’s broader strategy to create a hybrid mobility network in which autonomous vehicles operate alongside conventional cars driven by human partners. The company said it currently works with more than 30 autonomous vehicle partners and has facilitated millions of autonomous trips.
For Dubai, the expansion adds another commercial driverless service as the emirate works toward its long-term goal of increasing the share of autonomous transport across the city’s mobility network.
