Uber partners with Chinese firm to launch robotaxis in Middle East

Over the past decade, the US has been at the forefront of self-driving technology, with companies like Waymo, Tesla and Cruise leading the charge to develop a safe and reliable autonomous vehicle.

But all of that changed in 2023 when an autonomous vehicle developed by Cruise crashed into a pedestrian in San Francisco, putting them in critical condition.

“That was a wake-up call,” said Josep Laborda, founder and CEO of Barcelona-based transportation consulting group Factual. 

The highly publicized Cruise incident put US regulators on high alert, stifling innovation and allowing another country, China, to take center stage. 

Chinese self-driving companies enjoy government support and a more-relaxed regulatory environment. According to Laborda, that’s allowed startups like Baidu and WeRide to flourish domestically. Over the past couple of years, the two Chinese companies have begun focusing on the Middle East, launching trial services in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

Now, the market is getting an American competitor — with a Chinese twist. Uber is working with the Chinese software company Pony.ai to launch a fleet of driverless cars in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, also in the UAE. Experts say that the move could upend the global race to dominate the robotaxi market.

“Once available, when a rider requests a qualifying ride on the Uber app, they may be presented with the option to have their trip fulfilled by a Pony.ai autonomous vehicle,” Uber said in a press release. “During the initial pilot phase, these vehicles will have a safety operator onboard, until the companies’ fully autonomous commercial launch.”

It’s an unlikely partnership, but one that reveals how the center of gravity in the robotaxi race is shifting — not just toward Chinese technology but to regions outside of the US and China.

“The Middle East is a great place for this because the government is very supportive of this technology,” said Yanyan Wang, a tech and business strategist who writes a weekly newsletter about the cutting edge of emerging tech, including self-driving cars. 

According to Wang, governments in the Gulf States including the UAE have lax regulations, making it easier for robotaxi companies to get moving. On top of that, roads are well planned and maintained, and snow is never a problem. 

International expansion in the Middle East will unlock a massive new market, Wang said, adding, “By 2030, the robotaxi market will be valued at between $25 billion and $46 billion. And by 2040, that could reach $1 trillion.”  

But before that, experts say that self-driving companies — whether they’re American, Chinese or a combination of the two — need to win people’s trust and prove to customers that driverless cars actually work well, especially given the bad press autonomous vehicles have had in the US.

According to Michael Everett, a professor at Northeastern University who leads the school’s Autonomy and Intelligence Laboratory for autonomous vehicle companies, there’s a delicate dance between safety and convenience. 

Striking that balance, he said, is a numbers game. The more cars on the road, the more data is gathered, and the better cars get at avoiding accidents and navigating tricky situations.

“So, if you can deploy a hundred or a thousand cars, you can find those strange scenarios faster,” Everett said. “So, there is definitely a force multiplier going on if you can deploy a fleet of those vehicles.”

Countries like the UAE, Everett said, are a perfect playground to do just that — a sort of live experiment answering key questions such as: Will passengers embrace robotaxis? Can they really handle the chaos of real-world roads? And — most crucially — who’s accountable when something goes wrong?

Everett said it’s unclear whether the new partnership between Uber and Pony.ai will succeed, but the world will certainly be watching, because when it comes to the global robotaxi race, the road ahead is wide open.