Baidu, Uber expand autonomous rides in Dubai

Baidu and Uber have announced the expansion of their autonomous ride-hailing partnership in Dubai.

Baidu’s Apollo Go service will launch on the Uber platform within the next month in select areas of Jumeirah.

Broader deployment will depend on operational experience and regulatory approval, with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) as a key partner.

Passengers will be able to choose autonomous rides when booking UberX or Uber Comfort, with fleet management handled by New Horizon.

The move supports Dubai’s goal of having 25% of transportation trips be autonomous by 2030.

Apollo Go has completed over 240 million autonomous kilometers across 22 cities, with more than 17 million rides as of late 2025.

🔗 Source: Baidu

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The launch fits Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) plan to build a competitive ecosystem for autonomous vehicles 1.
In April 2025, the RTA said it widened global partnerships for autonomous taxis in Dubai, including Uber and autonomous vehicle (AV) company WeRide for AV rides on the Uber platform, plus China’s Baidu through its autonomous mobility arm, Apollo Go 1.
With multiple AV providers, Dubai aims to speed progress toward making 25% of all transport trips autonomous by 2030 1.
The Dubai launch with Baidu and Uber follows a plan to start fully autonomous Apollo Go rides on the Uber platform within the next month in parts of Jumeirah, while wider rollout depends on operating results plus regulatory approval 2.
The RTA also said trials would begin in 2025 with a safety driver, ahead of a driverless commercial launch in 2026 2.

The partnership offers a faster path to expand without heavy upfront spending in the autonomous vehicle industry.
Uber aims to act as a global distribution platform for AV technology through its app plus customer base, and it said it has “more than 20 AV partners already completing millions of autonomous trips annually” 2.
For Baidu, the setup opens routes into markets outside the U.S. and mainland China without paying to build demand from scratch 3.
The approach is not exclusive since Baidu also has a tie-up with Uber’s competitor Lyft to deploy robotaxis across Europe 3.