{"id":451686,"date":"2026-02-06T11:47:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T08:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/?p=451686"},"modified":"2026-03-05T17:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:09:29","slug":"dubai-to-start-self-driving-taxi-operations-in-march-sheikh-hamdan-had-a-trial-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/dubai-to-start-self-driving-taxi-operations-in-march-sheikh-hamdan-had-a-trial-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai to start self-driving taxi operations in March, Sheikh Hamdan had a trial ride"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">The<\/span> long-anticipated autonomous taxi service is set to finally begin operations in Dubai next March, following directives from the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Sheikh Hamdan confirmed that 100 fully autonomous vehicles will be added to the self-driving fleet in the emirate, saying, \u201cThis is only the beginning of our journey to the future. The best is yet to come for Dubai.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>To show his confidence in Dubai\u2019s ability to advance toward autonomous mobility while maintaining rigorous safety standards, Sheikh Hamdan traveled himself in a driverless vehicle on Thursday to attend the World Governments Summit 2026 at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DUX6XoNiRXE\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<div style=\"padding: 16px;\">\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 19% 0;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-top: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\"width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\"><a style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DUX6XoNiRXE\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">A post shared by Fazza (@faz3)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sheikh Hamdan, who also holds the role of Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, shared a video of the journey and captioned it: \u201cHands off. Future On. #SelfDrivingCar.\u201d The ride took place in one of Baidu\u2019s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d Sheikh Hamdan added.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>At the time being, three companies, Pony.ai, Uber, and Baidu\u2019s Apollo Go, will operate a combined fleet of 100 autonomous taxis through partnerships with Dubai\u2019s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>This news is especially important for Apollo Go, as it will mark the first time its self-driving service operates outside China. The company also plans to expand its fleet to more than 1,000 vehicles in the coming years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The long-anticipated autonomous taxi service is set to finally begin operations in Dubai next March, following directives from the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum. Sheikh Hamdan confirmed that 100 fully autonomous vehicles will be added to the self-driving fleet in the emirate, saying, \u201cThis is only the beginning of our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":451694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29330],"tags":[29400,29366,29411,29399],"audience-intent":[],"content-types":[],"country":[],"entity":[],"persona":[],"class_list":["post-451686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dubai","tag-mena","tag-mobility","tag-uae"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"audience-intent","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience-intent?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"content-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-types?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/menatech.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=451686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}