WeRide and Grab Launch Singapore's First Public Robotaxi Service, Opening a New Front in the Global Autonomous Vehicle Race
Chinese AV firm WeRide and Southeast Asian superapp Grab begin public autonomous rides in Singapore's Punggol district, marking the city-state's first driverless service open to everyday residents.
Overview
Guangzhou-based autonomous driving company WeRide and Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab have launched Singapore’s first public robotaxi service, opening the Ai.R (Autonomously Intelligent Ride) platform to everyday riders in the Punggol residential district as of March 31, 2026. The deployment marks a significant milestone in the global robotaxi race, as Chinese autonomous vehicle firms increasingly look beyond their saturated domestic market to establish footholds across Southeast Asia.
What We Know
The Ai.R service operates a fleet of 11 autonomous vehicles — 10 of WeRide’s five-seat GXR robotaxis and one eight-seat Robobus — connecting Punggol residents to key amenities including the Punggol Coast MRT station, a bus interchange, shopping malls, and medical clinics, according to WeRide’s official announcement. The service runs on weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. across two full-length shuttle routes and one shorter intra-community route of approximately 20 minutes.
Rides are free during the public trial phase, with commercial operations and introductory pricing planned for mid-2026, per the same announcement. Each vehicle carries a trained safety operator on board during this initial phase. Fourteen Grab driver-partners have completed a joint certification program delivered by WeRide and GrabAcademy, qualifying them as autonomous vehicle safety operators, with additional cohorts undergoing training for remote operator roles at a centralized command center.
The launch follows a trial period that began in January 2026, during which more than 1,000 participants — including local residents and community representatives — logged over 30,000 kilometers of autonomous driving, according to WeRide. Both the GXR and Robobus passed Singapore’s Milestone 1 (M1) safety assessment, which verifies a vehicle’s ability to operate safely on public roads in autonomous mode in compliance with the city-state’s traffic regulations.
The Technology
The GXR robotaxi runs on NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion platform, powered by the DRIVE AGX Thor system-on-chip, and integrates WeRide’s proprietary HPC 3.0 high-performance computing unit, according to WeRide’s GTC 2026 announcement. WeRide claims the GXR reduces autonomous driving suite costs by 50 percent and total cost of ownership by 84 percent compared to its predecessors, with current hardware costs of approximately $40,000 per vehicle and the potential for an additional 15 percent reduction as fleet scale increases.
WeRide and Chinese automaker Geely Farizon have signed an agreement to deliver 2,000 mass-produced GXR units by 2026, with a broader target of 2,600 active robotaxis this year and tens of thousands by 2030, per the same GTC announcement.
Southeast Asia and Beyond
The Singapore launch is part of a broader international push by Chinese autonomous driving companies. WeRide now operates across more than 40 cities in 11 countries, according to its GTC presentation. The company also plans to launch robotaxis and robobuses in Hong Kong later this year, according to the South China Morning Post.
WeRide is not the only Chinese AV firm expanding abroad. Baidu’s Apollo Go became Hong Kong’s first approved robotaxi tester in 2024, accumulating 20,000 kilometers of safe driving, while Pony.ai is negotiating a 2026 Hong Kong commercialization launch, as reported by the South China Morning Post. The pattern reflects an industry-wide strategy to diversify revenue beyond mainland China’s increasingly competitive domestic market.
WeRide’s financial results underscore the momentum: the company reported 90 percent revenue growth in 2025, reaching 685 million yuan (approximately $98 million), with robotaxi revenue more than tripling to 148 million yuan, while losses narrowed by 34 percent to 1.7 billion yuan, according to the South China Morning Post.
What We Don’t Know
Several questions remain unanswered. The timeline for removing on-board safety operators in favor of fully remote oversight has not been disclosed. Commercial pricing details for the mid-2026 transition are absent. It is also unclear how quickly Singapore’s Land Transport Authority will approve expansion beyond the Punggol pilot zone to other districts or island-wide deployment, which the government has previously indicated could take up to five years.
The broader competitive dynamics in Southeast Asia are also uncertain. Grab is both a WeRide shareholder and the dominant ride-hailing platform in the region, giving the partnership a significant distribution advantage. Whether rival platforms or other AV companies can secure similar regulatory approvals in Singapore remains to be seen.
Prior Coverage
This development adds to a rapidly evolving global robotaxi landscape. The Machine Herald has previously covered Waymo crossing 500,000 weekly paid rides across 10 U.S. cities, Uber signing robotaxi deals with Zoox and Motional, and GM beginning public road testing of its eyes-off autonomous driving system. The Singapore launch represents a notable shift in geography, bringing the robotaxi model to a Southeast Asian market where dense urban environments and strong regulatory frameworks may offer a distinct testing ground.