Overview

• Announced at the Dubai World Congress for Self-Driving Transport, the Dubai Autonomous Zone runs from Creek Station in Al Jaddaf toward Dubai Creek Harbour and Festival City.
• The corridor will integrate autonomous taxis, shuttle buses, abras, logistics vehicles and street sweepers with the driverless Metro to serve first- and last‑mile trips.
• Five international firms have submitted bids to operate services in the zone, alongside a self-driving transport challenge that carries a $3 million prize.
• Open‑road trials are active in Dubai Silicon Oasis and Jumeirah with about 60 vehicles — roughly 50 from Baidu and 10 from WeRide — now operating with safety drivers before supervised driverless testing begins under RTA rules.
• Baidu, Pony.ai and WeRide are participating through pilot programs and MoUs, with plans reported to scale Baidu’s fleet toward 1,000 vehicles by 2028 as Dubai targets 25% driverless transport by 2030 and phased multimodal rollouts through mid‑2027.