Uber to soon launch self-driving robotaxis in UAE. And there's a China connect

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Ride-hailing platform Uber recently announced a partnership with China's WeRide to launch robotaxis in the United Arab Emirates. WeRide describes itself as a international L4 autonomous driving technology company and under its partnership with Uber, will deploy the first batch of self-driving taxis in Abu Dhabi later this year.

While present in a big way within China, the partnership with Uber is WeRide's first global collaboration. For Uber on the other hand, the partnership allows it to further its efforts of including robotaxis on its platform. The US-based company had also signed a deal with GM's robotaxi unit called Cruise and has a continuing partnership with Alphabet's Waymo.

And now, Uber is all set to enter UAE for the first time ever, and with a partner that has the only license to test self-driving vehicles on public roads anywhere here.

The rise and spread of robotaxis

A number of companies are working towards making autonomous vehicles a reality and entering the taxi space is often considered more lucrative than private mobility arena.

Essentially, a robotaxi makes use of numerous cameras, sensors and lasers (LIDAR) to navigate roads without the need for any human intervention. At the forefront of development and trials are companies like Waymo, Alphabet and China's Baidu and WeRide.

There are also trial runs that are either ongoing or okayed in many parts of the world, often also on public roads. This is active in select areas of California in the US and in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, among others.

But there has been growing resentment against robotaxis as well. The primary objection against such a technology is that it is likely not entirely safe and may not be able to account for ever-changing dynamics of public roads. There is also the moral aspect of it all with a fear of job losses if such vehicles are deployed on a large scale. Drivers in San Francisco, for instance, staged protests against robotaxis in August of 2023 while those in many cities of China have also expressed their reservations.

But the advent of robotaxis is mostly considered inevitable. Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself is a big advocate of vehicles that can drive on their own, even claiming that such vehicles negate chances of human errors.