Will taxi drivers lose their jobs?

Over 15 years ago, getting a taxi would have required one to stand on the roadside, wave his/her hands under the sun, hope for an empty car to pass, slow down and then negotiate for a price before even sitting inside. I vividly recall walking from home for several minutes just to find one, let alone agreeing with the taxi driver on whether they would be able to take me to the destination I wished to go.
Today, thanks to uberisation (revolutionising the traditional taxi industry), you can easily download an app and get a taxi ordered (from virtually wherever they are), with the route, price and driver details all visible on the screen and that all by simply clicking a few taps on your smartphone.
Tomorrow even the driver may disappear altogether. The taxi will arrive on its own, drive itself and drop you off without having a human behind the wheel. This is not science fiction but rather a reality in some parts of the world.
Tech heavyweights like Google, Amazon, Tesla (in the US) and Baidu (in China) are already operating autonomous taxi services (robotaxis) in some fashion. This may eventually lead to taxi drivers losing their jobs (and being replaced ultimately).
My article this week looks briefly at what robotaxis are, how they work and whether the vision of replacing taxi drivers is a reality in the making.
A robotaxi is a fully self-driving taxi that picks you up, drives you and drops you off without anyone behind the steering wheel. It is an autonomous vehicle designed specifically to transport passengers like a regular taxi but with no human driver. It combines key technologies such as sensors, cameras, lidar/radar, GPS and artificial intelligence (AI) to see the environment, understand traffic and make driving decisions in real time.
Instead of a human looking at the road, the computer interprets everything around the car, from vehicles and pedestrians to traffic lights and even unexpected obstacles. Thanks to high-speed GSM networks (advanced 5G today and 6G tomorrow), response is even faster than any human could. Briefly, the key technologies will help the taxi see, think and act without any human intervention.
As indicated in the beginning of the article this week, robotaxis are no longer science fiction today. Companies are already operating autonomous taxi services on public roads, carrying real passengers with no human driver behind the wheel.
Waymo, the autonomous driving arm of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), runs a commercial robotaxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, where riders can book a self-driving car through an app and be taken to their destination autonomously. Meanwhile, in China, Baidu’s Apollo Go is offering paid robotaxi services across multiple cities, allowing passengers to order driverless rides through their smartphones. Together, these examples show that robotaxis are no longer just test projects but rather active services today (though limited to specific locations to start with).
Obviously, the biggest apparent disadvantage is humans losing jobs (particularly driving the vehicles); however, robotaxis benefits include but are not limited to fewer traffic accidents (for human error causes most crashes) and lower transportation costs (without drivers, cost per ride would go down). In addition, new roles would be created as a result, such as vehicle monitoring, fleet management, data analysis and AI maintenance, to name a few.
To conclude my article this week, should taxi drivers be worried? Yes, but not immediately, because change is coming. About a month ago, WeRide and Uber launched the Middle East’s first fully driverless robotaxi commercial operations in Abu Dhabi, currently operating on Yas Island routes.
The initiative, endorsed by Abu Dhabi’s Integrated Transport Centre, marks a major milestone in the UAE’s smart mobility vision. Its success will likely inspire other neighbouring countries, including Oman, to adopt similar services sooner rather than later. The era of self-driving taxis is no longer a distant idea; it is becoming a reality. Taxi drivers and those in the transport sector will need to upskill and adapt to stay relevant. Until next week, stay informed and ready for the ride ahead.