Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, launched a self-driving taxi network in the city.
Sheikh Hamdan launched the commercial operations of the Chinese-made Baidu Apollo Go self-driving cars and took a trip in one of the vehicles to attend the World Governments Summit which concluded on Thursday.
“On my way to the World Governments Summit 2026, I took a ride in a fully autonomous taxi, enabled by artificial intelligence, advanced sensing technologies, and autonomous decision-making systems,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote on social media platform X.
“The future of mobility in Dubai will be smarter, safer, more efficient, and more inclusive. We are turning vision into reality, building sustainable transport that improves quality of life for everyone.”
Sheikh Hamdan said the autonomous taxi service would launch next month with 100 self-driving vehicles joining the emirate's fleet.
Last month, The National revealed how Baidu was 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.
While at the summit, Sheikh Hamdan met Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and also Milojko Spajic, Prime Minister of Montenegro.
