The robotaxi map of Europe has been filling in city by city, and on Tuesday Madrid joined it. WeRide and Uber said they will launch what they call Spain’s first commercial robotaxi pilot in the Region of Madrid, with rides bookable through the Uber app and operations expected to begin later this year.
The launch is the companies’ first joint entry into the European market, and it arrives with the Madrid regional government, the Comunidad de Madrid, named as a partner.
The service will start with trained safety operators behind the wheel rather than empty driver’s seats. The companies say the fleet will scale “progressively,” with WeRide, Uber, and fleet operator AVOMO committed to adding hundreds of vehicles as performance milestones are met, and to expanding to fully driverless rides across core urban areas after that. No precise launch date, fleet size, or fare was disclosed.
The third name on the announcement is the one worth pausing on. AVOMO, part of the Moove Cars Group, is the company that actually runs the cars: it already operates Uber’s autonomous fleets in Austin and Atlanta, managing around 400 vehicles with a team of more than 200.
Its presence reflects WeRide’s “asset-light” strategy, in which the technology company supplies the autonomy and leaves fleet ownership and day-to-day operations to partners. “After nearly two years of close collaboration with Uber in the United States, we are entering this next phase,” said Manuel Puga, chief executive of Moove Cars Group.
