Glydways pods are on trial at Bluewaters: four seats, no driver, 20,000 passengers an hour

Dubai has trialled most of the ways a city can move people without a driver: the robotaxis now in commercial service, the air taxi, the autonomous bus. On 12 October 2026 the Roads and Transport Authority added one more: Glydways' automated transit system, on trial at Bluewaters for four weeks.

What it is

Small driverless vehicles for four to six passengers on a dedicated guideway narrower than a traffic lane, running on demand rather than to a timetable, at up to 50 km/h. Because the vehicles are small and continuous, the RTA puts the line capacity at more than 20,000 passengers an hour in each direction, the figure of a light-rail line at a fraction of its cost.

Where it might go

The authority lists the corridors under study: a 2.8 km link from the National Paints Metro station to Bluewaters, and lines in Jumeirah Village Circle, Festival City, Business Bay and Mohammed Bin Rashid City. None has a date or a budget.

Who said what

Mattar Al Tayer, the RTA's director general, framed the trial within the plan to make a quarter of the city's journeys autonomous by 2030; Mark Seeger, Glydways' chief executive, said Dubai is the company's first deployment outside the United States.