Uber Expects Nearly 200 Driverless Cars in the UAE by Year-End, 29% of Its Global Fleet

The forecast makes the UAE one of the biggest single markets in Uber's robotaxi rollout. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in the earnings release that the company had moved into a new phase: "Our focus on autonomous is now on commercial execution, with approximately 700 fully driverless vehicles expected on Uber by year-end and over 2,000 in 2027."

For UAE regulators and operators, the numbers show how quickly driverless services are moving from pilots to commercial fleets. Dubai has long aimed for a quarter of all trips in the emirate to be autonomous by 2030, and a fleet of around 200 vehicles across the country would be a large base by global standards.

Uber started its autonomous service in Dubai in August, on a limited stretch between Umm Suqeim and Jumeirah, according to AGBI. In Abu Dhabi it offers vehicles from WeRide, the Chinese autonomous-driving company, which holds a federal-level licence from the UAE government to run fully driverless robotaxis. Uber said WeRide, Baidu and Pony.ai already operate fully driverless services on its platform, and that it has announced autonomous launches, partnerships and expansion plans in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Other Chinese operators are also building up in the emirate. In January, Dubai gave Apollo Go, Baidu's ride-hailing platform, its first permit to test fully driverless vehicles.

The Gulf push continues even though the Iran conflict is hurting Uber's business in the region. The company said the conflict reduced gross bookings growth by 75 basis points in the third quarter. It expects a 100 basis point hit in the fourth quarter because of recent escalations during the busy travel season. Uber also said high fuel costs, tighter local labour markets and competition for drivers had limited how much of rider demand it could meet in several international markets.

Across the group, the third quarter was strong. Gross bookings rose 20 percent from a year earlier to $59.8 billion, revenue grew 10 percent to $14.8 billion and trips rose 16 percent to 4.1 billion, according to the earnings release. Net income attributable to Uber was $512 million, including a $476 million pre-tax loss from revaluing equity investments.

For the fourth quarter, Uber forecast gross bookings of $63.25 billion to $65.25 billion, growth of 18 to 22 percent at constant currency. Its shares closed 3.3 percent higher at $69.87 in New York but are still down more than 17 percent this year, AGBI reported.

The next target is the 2027 fleet. Khosrowshahi's goal of more than 2,000 driverless vehicles that year would roughly triple the global fleet, and Uber has not said how many of them it plans to deploy in the UAE.