Space42 has inked a memorandum of understanding with e& UAE to co-develop Vehicle-to-Everything systems that will underpin autonomous mobility and smart city infrastructure across the UAE. The pact seeks to marry Space42’s Sovereign Mobility Cloud and autonomous vehicle expertise with e& UAE’s 5.5G connectivity, edge computing and secure communications, forming a foundation for 6G-era applications.
The collaboration will see both firms launch pilot projects, help shape regulatory frameworks, and test business models to support wider deployment of connected and self-driving mobility solutions. Under the agreement, they will integrate terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, deploy roadside and edge nodes, and work with governmental bodies on certification and safety standards.
Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, CEO of e& UAE, said the partnership aims to “let vehicles ‘see’ more, react faster and share trusted data with roads, signals and pedestrians,” adding that the goal is to guide UAE regulators and city planners into certifiable pilots that blend current 5.5G capabilities with a pathway toward 6G. Hasan Al Hosani, CEO of Smart Solutions at Space42, described the effort as uniting “innovation on the ground and in the cloud,” turning vehicles into “more intelligent, connected and embodied agents.”
V2X enables communication between vehicles and infrastructure, other vehicles, and even pedestrians, offering improved situational awareness and real-time analytics. The technology also supports over-the-air updates to autonomous fleets, allowing maps and behaviours to evolve continuously.
This alliance builds on Space42’s successes. Since 2021, the company has logged over 600,000 km of autonomous driving and completed more than 20,000 passenger trips through TXAI, its robotaxi service. The firm’s Digital Twin of Abu Dhabi and its geospatial AI stack drive much of its mobility architecture.
On the connectivity side, e& UAE is exploring a direct-to-device model via its Equatys venture, developed with partner Viasat, to enable devices—including IoT and potentially standard handsets—to connect directly to satellites within a 3GPP Non-Terrestrial Network framework. Under the MoU, e& becomes the first mobile operator to test Equatys, aiming to broaden hybrid terrestrial–satellite connectivity beyond traditional network boundaries.
Regulatory collaboration is central to the pact: Space42 and e& plan to liaise with the Integrated Transport Centre, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport, the police, and other bodies to build certification, safety and data governance regimes. These arenas are already under exploration by the UAE’s Smart Autonomous Systems Council and in line with the UAE National AI Strategy 2031.
Beyond pilot zones in Abu Dhabi and other smart mobility districts, the companies envisage scaling to cover national road networks. Their ambition is to enable robotaxis, autonomous shuttles and logistics fleets operating in mixed traffic, across both urban and intercity corridors. The collaboration also proposes using roadside units and edge nodes to reduce latency and improve reliability.
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