Tech Desk 
Jul 16, 2025
An important development has just began as Chinese tech company Baidu has partnered with Uber to roll out thousands of driverless cars globally.
Through this partnership, Uber's platform in mainland China and other international markets outside of the US will incorporate Baidu's Apollo Go vehicles.
Later in the year, the first joint deployments are anticipated to occur in the Middle East and Asia.
Uber users in these areas might soon be able to use an Apollo Go autonomous car to hail a ride.
With the help of Uber's vast network and Baidu's modern autonomous driving technology, this partnership seeks to expand the availability of reasonably priced rideshare options in new locations.
In 15 cities, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Baidu currently has a fleet of more than 1,000 fully autonomous cars.
In 2022, the business introduced its autonomous driving platform in a number of Chinese cities, and it has since been growing its offerings internationally.
Although the partnership will introduce autonomous vehicles to a number of global markets, regulatory obstacles make a US rollout unlikely anytime soon.
Other businesses, like Waymo, Avride, and Zoox, are actively working on developing autonomous vehicles for the US market, though.
The collaboration between Baidu and Uber represents a major advancement in the global development of ride-hailing services and driverless cars.
It will be interesting to observe how this partnership influences the direction of transport in different markets as the sector develops further.
