Chinese WeRide Launches Driverless Service on Uber App

Driverless robotaxis have just arrived in a new country, the UAE!

WeRide, a Chinese autonomous vehicle company, have expanded their services outside of China for the first time, offering autonomous rides through the Uber app. This is another first for Uber, who up until now have only offered robotaxis through their app in the United States.

Interestingly, drawing similarities to Waymo's partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta, WeRide operate their own app inside of China named WeRide Go, which will not be in use in this expansion in favour of the Uber app.

We couldn't find the specifics of who will be handling the depot operations, but there is a good chance that Uber will be taking care of this as in their other deal with Waymo in the US, however this is just speculation at this stage.

This is not the first time WeRide has taken their autonomous technology abroad. In fact, the company holds autonomous driving licenses in the US and Singapore too. That's a total of four countries (including China and the UAE) at the same time - quite the operation!

The service is live and ready to ride today, so if you're in the Abu Dhabi, let us know in the comments if you've tried it.