News

Hala Gives Drivers A Digital Wallet For Faster Tips & Bonuses

The Careem Pay digital wallet will help 17,000 drivers to fast-track tips, bonuses, and guarantees by the end of July.

Published

3 years ago

July 5, 2023

Nour Nasir

Hala

Hala, Dubai’s e-hailing platform launched in 2019, now accounts for over 30% of total taxi trips, with users booking their journeys directly from the Careem app.

Now, the company’s drivers will also benefit from Careem Pay, with a new feature allowing them to expedite more frequent payments of their tips and bonuses. The digital wallet will be gradually rolled out to every Hala Captain (driver), with over 17,000 benefiting from twice-weekly payments by the end of July.

Careem integration allows easier management of expenses, a simple way to recharge mobile plans, and enables drivers to transfer money directly to any bank account within the app in a single click or screen tap. In addition, as 70% of Hala’s drivers are of Pakistani origin, they will also benefit from improved exchange rates when sending money back to Pakistani-based bank accounts.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

“At Hala, we are deeply committed to the well-being of our captains as we work to build a people-first culture. We have thus decided to launch this initiative for captains to be able to receive remuneration more frequently and with ease,” explained Khaled Nuseibeh, Chief Executive Officer at Hala, adding: “We are working with our partners to expand the remit further to ensure we are catering to everyone equally”.

As Dubai’s plans to modernize and improve its transport infrastructure continue at breakneck speed, the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) recently unveiled a plan to phase out conventional street-hailing of taxis in favor of e-hailing services — a move that’s sure to improve Hala’s fortunes over the coming years.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.