Uber announces new robotaxi program
Lucid Motors, Nuro, and Uber announced a new robotaxi program created exclusively for the Uber ride-hailing platform.
Expected to first launch later next year in a major US city, the new robotaxi service combines the vehicle architecture of the Lucid Gravity, the Nuro Driver Level 4 autonomy system, and Uber’s global network and fleet management.
Uber aims to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid vehicles equipped with the Nuro Driver over six years. The vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber or its third-party fleet partners and made available to riders exclusively via the Uber platform. The first Lucid-Nuro robotaxi prototype is already operating autonomously on a closed circuit at Nuro’s Las Vegas proving grounds.
As part of the deal, Uber will invest $300 million in Lucid.
“Autonomous vehicles have enormous potential to transform our cities for the better. We’re thrilled to partner with Nuro and Lucid on this new robotaxi program, purpose-built just for the Uber platform, to safely bring the magic of autonomous driving to more people across the world.” – Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.
“This investment from Uber further validates Lucid’s fully redundant zonal architecture and highly capable platform as ideal for autonomous vehicles, and our industry-leading range and spacious well-appointed interiors, as ideal for ridesharing. This is the start of our path to extend our innovation and technology leadership into this multi-trillion-dollar market.” – Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO at Lucid.
“We believe this partnership will demonstrate what’s possible when proven AV technology meets real-world scale. Nuro has spent nearly a decade building an AI-first autonomy system that’s safe, scalable, and vehicle-agnostic, proven through five years of driverless deployments across multiple U.S. cities and states. By combining our self-driving technology with Lucid’s advanced vehicle architecture and Uber’s global platform, we’re proud to enable a robotaxi service designed to reach millions of people around the world.” – Jiajun Zhu, Co-Founder and CEO at Nuro.
