Uber is working with Chinese tech giant Baidu to bring the Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing service to Dubai within a month.

In partnership with the Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) and expected to launch in the coming month, the fully autonomous vehicles will be available via the Uber app across select locations within the Jumeirah area, and the deployment will expand based on operational learnings and regulatory approvals across the city.

This is the next stage of a partnership announced in July last year (iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/news/connected-transportation-news/uber-to-deploys-thousands-of-apollo-go-robotaxis/) in which thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles will be deployed on the Uber platform across multiple global markets outside of the USA and China.

This collaboration also aligns directly with Dubai’s goal of 25% of all transportation trips to be autonomous by 2030.

For trips within the service area, passengers will have the opportunity to be matched with an Apollo Go vehicle when booking an Uber Comfort or UberX, or by selecting the autonomous option in the Uber app. Fleet management will be handled by third-party operator New Horizon.

“Bringing Apollo Go to Dubai via the Uber platform marks a pivotal step in our mission to provide safe, efficient and accessible autonomous mobility worldwide,” said Nan Yang, vice president of Baidu. “As a key deliverable of the strategic partnership between Apollo Go and Uber announced last July, this deployment officially brings our autonomous ride-hailing service to Dubai, utilising Uber’s vast network to turn our shared vision into reality.”

Sarfraz Maredia from Uber added: “We’re excited to partner with Baidu as we continue to grow our autonomous footprint across Dubai. Just as we helped millions of people try out EVs for the first time, we will expand consumer access to autonomous technology in major cities around the world. With more than 20 AV partners already completing millions of autonomous trips annually, Uber is the global platform where the autonomous vehicle industry can launch at scale.”

This announcement comes on the heels of another market expansion last December, when the parties announced plans to bring the autonomous ride-hailing service to London, a right-hand drive market, as well as the inauguration of Apollo Go Park in Dubai in January, its first overseas operations and management hub.

Apollo Go has logged more than 240 million autonomous kilometres, of which over 140 million kilometres were completed in fully driverless mode. With a global footprint across 22 cities, Apollo Go’s weekly ride count has recently surpassed 250,000, and the service completed more than 17 million cumulative rides as of October 2025.

Founded in 2000, Baidu (home.baidu.com) is an AI company with a strong internet foundation. Uber (www.uber.com) started in 2010 and since then has run more than 68 billion trips.