Uber Partners With Nuro, Invests $300m Into Lucid To Launch Upscale Robotaxi Service

Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into EV shaper Lucid and autonomous conveyance exertion startup Nuro successful a bid to motorboat its ain premium robotaxi service.

Under nan woody announced Thursday, Uber will put $300 cardinal into Lucid and separately bargain “at least” 20,000 of nan EV maker’s caller Gravity SUV complete nan adjacent six years. Those EVs will beryllium equipped pinch Nuro’s autonomous conveyance strategy pinch plans to motorboat a robotaxi work successful a awesome U.S. metropolis adjacent year. Those vehicles will beryllium owned and operated by Uber aliases its third-party fleet partners.

Uber is besides investing an undisclosed “multi-hundred-million dollar” magnitude into Nuro. One root acquainted pinch nan statement said nan fig is much than Uber’s finance successful Lucid. 

The statement betwixt nan 3 companies was a twelvemonth successful nan making, Nuro co-founder and president Dave Ferguson told TechCrunch.

” I deliberation that’s astir apt a reflection of really how meaty it is,” he said, adding that Uber was looking to make a very ample committedness to a robotaxi programme and spent clip pinch almost each AV institution to find nan astir suitable partner. “We were thrilled that, astatine nan extremity of each that we were nan partner that was chosen.”

Ferguson said engineers astatine Lucid and Nuro person already made advancement connected nan project. The companies person been testing a prototype driverless conveyance connected a closed way astatine Nuro’s proving grounds successful Las Vegas.

Uber has spent nan past 2 years locking successful partnerships pinch autonomous conveyance exertion companies that covers nan spectrum of really self-driving systems tin beryllium applied to nan beingness world. Uber has collaborated pinch much than 18 companies globally, across ride-hailing, delivery, and trucking. Just this twelvemonth alone, Uber has announced deals with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May Mobility Volkswagen, and Chinese self-driving firms Momenta, WeRide, and Baidu.

It’s astir high-profile business successful nan U.S. — and 1 that is commercially operating coming — is pinch Waymo. The companies connection a Waymo connected Uber work successful Austin and Atlanta.

This woody illustrates conscionable really overmuch money Uber is consenting to put successful hopes of tapping into, and moreover dominating, nan burgeoning autonomous conveyance market.