On November 11, 2026, in the Dubai World Trade Center exhibition hall, a representative of a Chinese autonomous driving company laid out a test route map on a table, with local transportation operators and investment institutions sitting across from them. On that day, a permanent cooperation window for Chinese intelligent transportation enterprises was launched in Dubai, and the contacts formed during the exhibition were consolidated into a year-round docking mechanism.

Dubai sets up a permanent cooperation window

This window is called the UAE China Smart Transportation Center and will be launched during the 2026 Dubai International Electric Vehicle Exhibition and Conference. The exhibition will be held from November 10th to 12th, 2026, jointly organized by the Dubai Road Traffic Authority and the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People's Association. More than 300 institutions will participate, and about 120 industry experts and enterprise representatives will attend. Chinese companies such as BYD, Xiaopeng Motors, Xiaomi, Jike, and Wenyuan Zhixing participated in the exhibition and exchange. The responsibility of the new window is not to hold exhibitions at once, but to make enterprise coordination, cooperation docking, and project promotion a normalized work.

Regulatory certification docking first

The first task of the center is to help Chinese companies understand the vehicle certification, safety standards, operating licenses, and charging facility requirements in the United Arab Emirates. For car and technology companies preparing to enter the local market, regulatory approval often becomes the threshold before the product itself. The center will regularly organize contacts between Chinese manufacturers and UAE fleet operators, charging network service providers, industrial partners, and investment institutions to promote regulatory policy integration and commercial cooperation on the same table. The approval authority for related technologies still lies with the competent authorities in the UAE, and the center is responsible for coordinating and coordinating functions. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, smart transportation, the Middle East, high-tech

Test operation scenario deployment

The third task focuses on testing and piloting, covering directions such as autonomous taxis, unmanned logistics, intelligent charging, and energy technology. Chinese autonomous driving companies have accumulated operational experience in Dubai. In March 2026, Baidu's Apollo Go and Wenyuan Zhixing's self driving taxi services will be put into commercial operation in Jumeirah, Umm Sugaim and other regions. Wenyuan Zhixing's vehicles will provide services through the Uber platform, and Apollo Go will cooperate with Dubai Taxi Company through the Apollo Go application. In August 2026, Dubai's transportation department disclosed that the local Robotaxi project had traveled over 4 million kilometers and completed 7613 passenger trips, with a fleet of 144 vehicles, of which 48 were in actual operation. In terms of new energy vehicles, electric vehicles account for 19% of Dubai's taxi and luxury car fleet, while hybrid and other environmentally friendly vehicles account for over 72%. According to Dubai's plan, all taxis and luxury cars will be converted to electric or hydrogen powered vehicles by 2040, and 25% of urban transportation will switch to autonomous driving mode by 2030. In 2025, the non oil trade volume between China and the United Arab Emirates exceeded 100 billion US dollars for the first time, with a year-on-year growth of 24.5%, providing an economic and trade foundation for these collaborations.Editor/Gao Xue