The driver’s seat is empty, but the steering wheel follows the road. From inside a WeRide robotaxi in Dubai, a futuristic journey can look surprisingly ordinary. The next step is closer to home: WeRide and Uber are preparing a Madrid service.
Uber CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy identifies November as the intended launch month. Madrid will initially have safety drivers; the driverless footage comes from the United Arab Emirates. WeRide supplies the driving technology, Uber the app and Spanish partner AVOMO fleet operations.
Replacing the driver with a system
A robotaxi must do more than stay between lane markings. It has to locate other road users, predict their actions and plan a path between them. WeRide’s technology explanation brings perception, positioning and planning together in one driving system.
The GXR robotaxi is a spacious five-seater with more than twenty sensors and multiple backup systems. Cameras provide recognisable images; lidar measures distances using laser light. Software turns those readings into a usable picture of traffic.
The moving steering wheel is the final part of a much longer chain: measure the surroundings, decide how to drive, then turn that decision into steering, braking or acceleration.
Madrid starts with twenty vehicles
The Spanish permit granted in September enables preparations such as mapping, route validation and operational testing. The initial phase involves twenty vehicles with an onboard specialist, rather than an immediate switch to empty driver’s seats.
A new city needs its own preparation. Junctions, lanes and passenger pickup locations differ. Shipping a vehicle from Dubai to Madrid does not make the same service ready to run.
An ordinary app, an unusual vehicle
Krishnamurthy says the UAE partnership has nearly one hundred fully driverless vehicles. He envisages driverless Madrid rides later, with a dedicated autonomous category in Uber’s app, but gives no specific date for that stage.
That is the practical attraction of the partnership. Passengers can keep entering a destination and booking a ride in a familiar way. Behind that simple screen, almost everything changes about who — or what — drives the car.
