Uber CEO talks up UAE driverless vehicle ambitions

Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi praised the ride-hailing company’s partnerships with China’s WeRide to offer self-driving car services in the UAE, during a conference in Washington on Friday.

“It’s a terrific team, and we offer WeRides now in Abu Dhabi, and recently announced that expansion into Dubai as well,” Mr Khosrowshahi said during an appearance at Semafor’s World Economy Summit 2025.

The Uber chief executive was one of several technology executives who spoke during the AI and the Next Tech Revolution portion of the event.

In 2024, Uber announced it would begin using self-driving cars from WeRide in its Abu Dhabi fleet, expanding the emirate's autonomous public transport options and boosting its sustainability push.

The rides were initially made available on Saadiyat Island and Yas Island, with plans to expand further.

UAE transport company Tawasul operates WeRide's vehicles on the Uber platform.

Each car is equipped with a human safety operator at the wheel.

Earlier this year, both Uber and WeRide also announced a partnership with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority to bring self-driving taxis to the emirate's roads.

Uber is one of many transport and technology companies jockeying for a lead position in the self-driving car sector.

For Uber, self-driving ambitions have always been a thorny issue, as the company is largely built on its relationships with human drivers who have helped secure its success.

During his discussion at the Semafor event, Mr Khosrowshahi was asked about the problems brewing at Tesla, which recently announced a significant drop in quarterly profit as anger grows over the company’s chief Elon Musk and his polarising involvement with the Trump administration.

“I can’t speak to whether or not he’s getting bored with cars,” said Uber’s chief executive.

“But I will say that the OEM business [original equipment manufacturer], the traditional car manufacturing business is a really tough business." He said that to achieve scale, companies needed to be able to sell globally at a brisk pace.

Mr Khosrowshahi added: “In turn, if you sell globally, you’re going to have to compete with the Chinese auto manufacturers."

Uber’s chief executive said that, for all the talk about ride-sharing eliminating the need to purchase a car, he owns a Tesla and occasionally uses the self-driving feature.

“It’s delightful but I have to take over once in a while,” he said. “It is an absolutely great product, and it’s a terrific car.”

Those words probably won’t do much to pull Tesla out of the doldrums, but it might be music to the ears of Mr Musk, who has promised investors that he’ll now focus more on his car company and less on politics.

Also taking part in the Semafor World Economy Summit were Khaldoon Al Mubarak, managing director of Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Nasdaq chief Adena Friedman and others.