Affordable and Flexible Mobility Solutions

The new Back-to-School car rentals meet the rising demand for short- and medium-term transport options. Each package includes 3,000 km per month, flexible rental durations of up to 12 months, and a seamless digital experience. Customers can book, compare, and manage vehicles entirely online, avoiding paperwork and branch visits. Moreover, transparent pricing ensures affordability while flexible terms provide peace of mind.

Mobility Trends Driving Demand

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority reported a 43% surge in rental vehicles in 2024, with more than 71,000 now operating across the emirate. Rental companies grew by 33%, while demand for premium and electric vehicles accelerated. Furthermore, with expatriates accounting for nearly 88% of the UAE’s population, the need for commitment-free mobility continues to rise. SelfDrive’s tech-enabled solutions respond directly to these market shifts, offering users choice without financial strain.

Hatchbacks Join the 2025 Lineup

This year’s highlight is the addition of compact, fuel-efficient hatchbacks. These cars are ideal for navigating city traffic and university campuses, complementing the existing lineup of sedans and SUVs. Every vehicle is dealer-maintained, insured, and available with transparent pricing. Additionally, users benefit from the freedom to return or extend their rentals without penalty, breaking away from the constraints of ownership or long-term leasing.

A Proven Mobility Tech Leader

Founded in the UAE in 2017, SelfDrive Mobility now serves over 1.5 million users across eight international markets. The platform offers access to more than 100 models from 50 global brands, positioning itself as a pioneer in app-based, flexible mobility. With this Back-to-School initiative, SelfDrive continues to transform how residents experience mobility, blending affordability, convenience, and innovation.

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What are the biggest challenges that businesses in the region face?

A large number of businesses in the region are yet to adopt digital technologies and if they don’t go digital, they will practically fade away in the market. At VMware, we understand how important this is for customers and try to help them throughout their digital transformation journey. We explain to them the current market trends and educate them on how they can run their businesses after opting for the transition.

What issues are holding companies back from embracing a cloud-first approach and wider digital transformation plans?

The local regulations in some countries, security concerns, data privacy, data sovereignty, and cost were major factors holding companies back from the cloud-first approach. I don’t think it is the case anymore as things have drastically changed after the pandemic hit. Most of these challenges were well addressed and enterprises are swiftly moving toward cloud solutions.

Ihab Farhoud, Director, Solution Engineering – MENAT, VMware

A shortage of multi-cloud talent is the next major challenge. It is difficult to find the talent that knows the various hyperscalers and the different cloud providers across the board. Businesses can no longer stick to one cloud provider as different clouds have different features and different capabilities. Depending on how complex the business is, having multiple clouds will satisfy most of the business requirements.

Is the situation the same for all sizes of businesses? Are larger organizations more advanced in their digital transformation plans than SMEs?

Small and medium enterprises and large enterprises have the same kinds of considerations when it comes to choosing cloud solutions. However, cost is a probably more of a factor influencing small businesses in choosing modern technologies.

How does VMware help organizations move to the cloud?

We help our customers by providing a digital platform to help them build, run, manage, secure, and connect modern applications and clouds end-to- end.

Some organizations face a challenge with cloud in that they have a lack of visibility about whether applications or workloads are running efficiently on a specific cloud, and also whether it is cost-effective to run the workload on a specific cloud. VMware solves these challenges for customers. Our platform can run traditional or legacy applications next to modern cloud-native applications. We enable customers to monitor workloads of applications protected by a single security platform across the board. VMware offers services with AWS, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, and Oracle.

Tell us about your role at VMware and the strategies you devise for the region?

I handle presales for the organization across Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa. I regularly travel across the region to meet different types of customers especially in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt.

Regarding our regional strategies; we want to offer services to all sectors, including government, healthcare, education, banking, security, and mission critical sectors.