WeRide, Uber, and AVOMO Secure Spain's First Level 4 Autonomous Vehicle Permit

Spain's Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) has granted the nation's inaugural permit for Level 4 autonomous passenger vehicles operating on public roads to a corporate trio consisting of autonomous driving developer WeRide, ride-hailing platform Uber, and fleet management provider AVOMO. Issued under Spain's official ES-AV regulatory structure for driverless vehicles, the permit authorizes the companies to launch early-stage testing initiatives in direct collaboration with the Regional Government of Madrid. The authorization was announced by the three companies on Thursday, as first reported by The Next Web and Reuters.

The newly granted authorization covers public road testing for WeRide's dedicated GXR autonomous vehicle design within the capital region. Under the initial phase of the program, the consortium plans to introduce 20 vehicles across high-demand traffic zones throughout Greater Madrid. These early deployments will focus primarily on high-definition mapping, system route validation, and operational preparedness checks to ensure the vehicle systems can navigate complex metropolitan conditions. Each vehicle involved in the opening phase will be staffed by a trained in-car safety specialist who will supervise software behavior and maintain manual override control.

If the trial phase satisfies internal operational targets and satisfies local regulatory mandates, the partner companies expect to launch fully commercial, revenue-generating driverless rides in Madrid by the end of 2026. The approval represents the first national clearance granted within the European Union for WeRide's GXR platform. Jennifer Li, chief financial officer and head of international operations at WeRide, noted that the Spanish DGT permit brings the company's total tally of global autonomous vehicle licenses to nine across multiple regulatory jurisdictions.

The planned Madrid deployment represents the initial European footprint for Uber and WeRide's joint autonomous ride-hailing initiative. The Spanish capital serves as the fourth target city under a broader strategic alliance between the two technology firms, which aims to bring automated ride-hailing services to 15 major metropolitan markets globally by 2030. As part of that long-term partnership agreement, Uber and WeRide plan to integrate and deploy tens of thousands of Level 4 autonomous passenger vehicles onto urban transport networks over the remainder of the decade.

The commercial framework relies on a three-way division of labor tailored to each firm's core operational strength. WeRide supplies the underlying driverless technology software and vehicle platform, Uber provides the customer-facing ride-hailing dispatch network, and AVOMO assumes responsibility for physical fleet management and field operations. AVOMO operates as the specialized autonomous vehicle arm of Moove Cars Group, bringing existing operational experience from US markets including Austin and Atlanta, where it manages approximately 400 driverless vehicles supported by more than 200 technical specialists. To scale its fleet management infrastructure, Moove Cars Group secured $250 million in venture funding at a $2.1 billion valuation in August.

Leadership across all three organizations pointed to the regulatory milestone as a critical precursor to broad European adoption. "The Madrid region is a key gateway for our European expansion," WeRide's Li said in a statement accompanying the announcement. Sarfraz Maredia, global head of autonomous mobility and delivery at Uber, emphasized the transition from regulatory filing to physical testing, noting that the permit "marks an important milestone in bringing autonomous mobility from planning into real-world deployment." Manuel Puga, chief executive officer of Moove Cars Group, highlighted the extensive operational groundwork required before consumer launches, stating that "every successful autonomous vehicle deployment begins long before the first commercial ride."

The Spanish permit further extends WeRide's global expansion trajectory, which currently encompasses operational footprints across more than 60 cities in 13 countries. In August, the Chinese autonomous driving firm established its first Nordic presence by entering Denmark, where it plans to initiate commercial robotaxi operations by 2027. The expansion in Spain reflects broader momentum across the European autonomous transport sector. Europe's first commercial robotaxi deployment officially went live in Zagreb in April, while the Netherlands became the first country on the continent to grant regulatory approval for Tesla's Full Self-Driving Supervised technology during the same month.