Uber Technologies announced Thursday a sweeping six-year partnership with electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors and autonomous driving startup Nuro to roll out more than 20,000 robotaxis across major U.S. cities, signaling an aggressive push into driverless ride-hailing as competition with Waymo and Tesla intensifies.
As part of the agreement, Uber will invest $300 million in Lucid and commit a similar multi-hundred-million-dollar investment in Nuro, which will supply the Level 4 autonomous driving software for the robotaxi fleet. Lucid, whose Gravity SUV will serve as the vehicle platform, saw its shares jump nearly 30% following the news. Uber shares were marginally higher in premarket trading.
"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," said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
The vehicles, outfitted with Nuro's self-driving system and integrated with Uber's fleet operations, are expected to begin service in a major U.S. urban hub next year. Testing of the prototype robotaxi is already underway at Nuro's Las Vegas proving grounds.
"This is the start of our path to extend our innovation and technology leadership into this multi-trillion-dollar market," said Lucid interim CEO Marc Winterhoff. "This investment from Uber further validates Lucid's fully redundant zonal architecture and highly capable platform as ideal for autonomous vehicles."
Lucid's Gravity SUV, with a reported 450-mile range, is expected to reduce charging times and operating costs-key metrics for ride-hailing economics. The company said additional Lucid models could be included in the program over time.
The partnership strengthens Uber's reentry into the robotaxi market after it shut down its autonomous division in 2020 following a fatal crash in Arizona. Uber has since shifted to forming alliances, including with Alphabet's Waymo, which recently expanded service to Atlanta and Austin.
Nuro, backed by Google and the SoftBank Vision Fund, raised $106 million in April from investors including Fidelity and Tiger Global. The company described the Uber partnership as a "blueprint for a robotaxi program that's both commercially viable and globally scalable."
Uber and Lucid are among the top holdings of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which owns a $5.31 billion stake in Uber and a majority $4.29 billion stake in Lucid, according to the PIF's latest 13F filing. The overlapping ownership has raised speculation about Saudi Arabia's strategic interest in accelerating synergy between its two portfolio companies.
