News
WeRide Granted First Self-Driving Vehicle License In UAE
The Chinese autonomous driving company may soon deploy robotaxis and robobusses across the Emirates and beyond.
Chinese autonomous driving startup WeRide was the first company in the world to hold driverless permits for testing in both China and the USA. Now, the autonomous technologies experts have secured a license to deploy self-driving vehicles in the UAE, having already completed public testing on some routes within the Emirate.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the news on Twitter: “We approved the first national license for self-driving vehicles on the country’s roads, which was granted to a specialized WeRide company”.
Dubai aims to make 25% of its transportation completely autonomous by 2030, so the permit comes at an ideal time. Last month, as part of the Eid al-Adha holiday services, the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) of Abu Dhabi announced that visitors to Saadiyat and Yas Islands could experience free autonomous driving car rides, including a vehicle called “TXAI”, which was launched by WeRide in partnership with a local company Bayanat.
Also Read: UAE’s du Teams With Huawei For Net-Zero Telecom Services
WeRide has developed its state-of-the-art technologies through WeRide One, which the company describes as a “one-for-all and all-for-one platform for urban autonomous driving applications. Designed with high flexibility on both the software and hardware levels”. The platform uses self-evolving deep learning systems to prioritize safety, plus AI algorithms and a fusion of camera, LiDAR, and radar to replace human operators.
In a recent press release WeRide said, “In the future, WeRide will continue to deepen its presence in the Middle East region and bring high-quality autonomous driving technology, products, and services to more customers and consumers”.
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.
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.
2026 Crypto Trends: Bitcoin, ETFs & The Future Of Payments
At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value
DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch
Lebanon Ministers Meet Visa Over National Digital Payment Platform
