Gitex 2024: Dubai Taxi Company partners with Bolt and is open to using driverless cars in future

Partnership aims for 80 per cent of taxi hailing to be done through online bookings

Dubai began supervised testing of driverless vehicles on its public roads in October last year. Khushnum Bhandari/ The National

Dubai Taxi Company has partnered with the European mobility company Bolt, boosting its consumer reach as part of a smart-platform expansion strategy that includes the potential addition of autonomous vehicles to its fleet, its chief executive has said. The company does not have a time frame but is keeping an eye on developments in the sector touted to be the future of sustainable transport, Mansoor Alfalasi said at the Gitex Global technology conference in Dubai on Tuesday.

"We are exploring opportunities still. We are also in contact with the regulator, the Roads and Transport Authority, and we'll see how it goes," he told The National. "Of course the future is autonomous taxis. We are exploring this opportunity. Still, it [requires] a lot of regulation, to make sure it's safe for people and when we are ready, of course we're going to announce it for the people."

Bolt currently does not have autonomous vehicle services. However, in 2019 the company teamed up with the University of Tartu to develop self-driving solutions, and in 2023 it partnered with its fellow Estonian firm Starship Technologies for autonomous food and grocery deliveries. Driverless vehicles gained further traction last week when Elon Musk introduced Tesla Motors' first fully-autonomous vehicles, the Cybercab and Cybervan, at a much-hyped event in Los Angeles.

"Self-driving cars are going to absolutely change the world ... it makes a lot of value for self-driving car companies to partner with leading ride-hailing networks, rather than build up all of this infrastructure we've been building for the last 10 years in terms of technology," Markus Villig, founder and chief executive of the Estonia-based Bolt, told The National.

Dubai Taxi's partnership with Bolt marks the latter's entry into the UAE, and would support the RTA's goal of making 80 per cent of taxi hailing done through online bookings in the coming years, the companies said in a joint statement. Operations will kick off with limousine and taxi services, with Bolt's range of mobility solutions, including food and grocery delivery, scooter and e-bike rental, and short-term car rental, planned to be introduced in the future, Mr Villig said. The Bolt UAE app is also available in Arabic.

That would mean Dubai Taxi and Bolt could eventually rival Dubai's Careem, the home-grown start-up that rose from ride-hailing to a do-it-all, billion-dollar app, and Uber Technologies, the US company widely regarded as having brought online ride-hailing into the mainstream. "This will be a very good exercise for us to shift people from other platforms into ours ... and also we are going to leverage the size of our fleet, an asset no one else owns," Mr Alfalasi said, referring to Dubai Taxi's 6,000-strong fleet in Dubai – estimated to be half of the emirate's taxi pool.

Bolt is also looking into more Middle East markets for expansion, Mr Villig said. It has been operating in Saudi Arabia since 2017. "The ambition for us is to grow significantly in the region and become the most popular platform here in the whole region as well," he said.

Mobile apps have become a part of daily lives and activities, and start-ups have continued to develop innovations to further enhance their functionality. All-in-one apps take this several steps further, integrating several services within the same app.

Apps such as those for ride-hailing have added more services to give extra incentive to users. The global ride-hailing market alone is projected to hit about $248.3 billion by 2030, from an estimated $153.3 billion in 2023, growing at a compound annual rate of more than 6 per cent, data from Prescient and Strategic Intelligence shows.

Meanwhile, the UAE aims to become a leader in smart mobility systems as part of its efforts both to boost sustainability and adopt the latest technology. Dubai began supervised testing of driverless vehicles on its public roads in October last year after US self-driving tech company Cruise, which is backed by General Motors and Honda Motor, was issued with a trial permit.

In Abu Dhabi, Uber will begin using self-driving cars from China's WeRide later this year, it announced last month. The UAE capital already has its own fleet of driverless taxis on Yas Island run by TXAI, the UAE's first driverless taxi service. During 2022's Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, TXAI operated a driverless bus service to carry fans.

Electric air taxis are expected to begin operating in Dubai during the first quarter of 2026, the RTA confirmed last month. Dubai Taxi and Bolt did not discuss their partnership's potential impact on their bottom lines.

"This long-term strategic partnership with Dubai Taxi will ... reduce the need to use a private car which will have a positive impact on the emirate and the people living here," Mr Villig said.