27/08/2026
Robotaxis Are No Longer Science Fiction
For years, autonomous cars were presented as something that would happen someday.
That day is arriving.
This month, autonomous rides launched through Uber in Zagreb. Uber and Pony.ai are planning to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis across Europe. And in Dubai, fully driverless Baidu Apollo Go vehicles are already available to passengers through the Uber platform. (Reuters)
But the bigger story isn’t the robotaxi.
It is the business model being created around it.
Uber doesn’t need to manufacture the autonomous vehicle.
Pony.ai doesn’t need to build the global customer marketplace.
The fleet operator doesn’t necessarily need to own the AI.
Different companies can provide different layers:
AI & autonomous driving → Vehicle → Fleet operations → Mobility platform → Customer
This is a fundamental shift in how transportation will be built.
The car is becoming a technology platform.
And mobility is becoming an ecosystem.
For Africa, this should raise a bigger question:
Are we going to wait for these technologies to arrive, or are we going to build the infrastructure that allows African mobility to participate in the next generation of transportation?
The future of mobility isn’t just about cars driving themselves.
It’s about vehicles, data, AI, infrastructure and commerce becoming one connected system.
And that future is already beginning.