An autonomous-vehicle control centre is set to open in Dubai Science Park as the move towards driverless cars hitting the roads gathers speed.
Commercial operations of the Chinese-made Apollo Go self-driving cars will begin within two months, according to Dubai Media Office.
In partnership with the Roads and Transport Authority, Baidu has been granted the first permit to operate trials of the Apollo Go driverless cars in Dubai on designated public roads, without a safety driver behind the wheel.
A fleet of vehicles is due to scale-up towards 1,000 on the road cars by 2028, capable of collecting passengers and dropping off at destinations around the city.
The 2,000-square-metre testing hub inside Dubai Science Park will include simulation and training facilities, an operations and maintenance centre, as well as a command and control centre.
It will be the company’s first facility outside of China, where driverless cars have already taken to roads in major cities across the country.
In Dubai, Baidu’s Apollo Go will deploy the sixth, also the latest generation, of its autonomous taxis RT6, specifically designed for autonomous mobility services.
It marks a significant step forward in Dubai's goal to have 25 per cent of all journeys in Dubai being made autonomously by 2030.
In September, it was announced that a 15-square-kilometre testing zone for self-driving taxis, deliveries and other service vehicles will be established in Festival City and Dubai Creek Harbour later in 2026. It aims to evaluate how autonomous transport will work on a larger scale.
Meanwhile in Abu Dhabi, testing is already under way for the region’s first commercial driverless mobility service operated by Uber and WeRide, another Chinese firm looking to break into the emerging UAE market.
The UAE capital already has its own fleet of driverless taxis on Yas Island run by TXAI, which was the nation’s first driverless taxi service.
