Self-driving buses to Southeast Asia: Substitute or supplement to Grab drivers?

Grab , Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing platform, is accelerating its adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs). “Grab will continue to build new partnerships, engage in more pilot projects to understand the operating conditions of various self-driving services, and contribute to the efforts of regulators to improve transport connectivity through autonomous technology,” Anthony Tan said in his Q3 2025 earnings report.

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According to him, Grab will test robobuses in Singapore in 2026, marking an important milestone in its long-term investment strategy in autonomous vehicles. Previously, the company tested robotaxi in Singapore with partner WeRide - a Chinese company. Grab also announced strategic investments in WeRide and in the US company May Mobility - a commercial robotaxi operator in the US.

However, Anthony Tan admitted that low labor costs in the region are a major obstacle preventing autonomous vehicles from competing with human drivers immediately. He stressed: “Autonomous technology does not mean drivers will lose their jobs, but will open up new roles such as remote monitoring staff, labelers.”

Grab’s Q3 2025 financial report shows that its revenue reached $873 million, up 22% year-on-year. Ride-hailing services increased 17% to $317 million; delivery increased 23% to $465 million; and the financial segment increased 39% to $90 million. The company raised its 2025 EBITDA forecast to around $480-500 million.

The early push into autonomous driving in the region signals Grab’s bet on a future where “driverless cars” will gradually appear in public transport and transportation services. With this goal, technology drivers – rather than being eliminated – can move into positions of supervision, operation, management of autonomous systems or customer care during the transition.

However, Grab also noted the reality of deploying AV technology in Southeast Asia, where cost, infrastructure and the number of traditional vehicles still dominate. Therefore, this transition period is considered long-term and requires close coordination between businesses, governments and managers.

From the perspective of technology drivers, this transformation requires improving skills, adapting to new technologies and expanding forms of cooperation. The emergence of robobuses may change the traditional driver profession, but it does not mean that the profession disappears, but only transforms to newer models.

Grab also said it will integrate AI more deeply into its workflow. More than 98% of the company's engineers use AI in programming, significantly shortening product development cycles. AI now supports user experiences - such as voice recognition by region reaching about 90%.

Nguyen Bach

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/doanh-nhan/xe-buyt-tu-lai-den-dong-nam-a-nhan-to-thay-the-hay-bo-sung-cho-tai-xe-grab/20251106112156769