Uber is making a big move in the race toward autonomous mobility. The company has announced a hefty $300 million investment in Lucid Motors, with self-driving tech startup Nuro in what’s shaping up to be a major robotaxi push.
As part of the deal, Uber is locking in at least 20,000 Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with Nuro’s Level 4 autonomy. Uber plans to own and operate this fleet itself through its app, essentially building a driverless ride-hailing service from the ground up. A pilot rollout is expected as early as late 2026, starting in a major U.S. city.
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This marks a clear shift in direction for Uber. The company sold off its own self-driving autonomous unit back in 2020 to Aurora. The decision was due to the fatal crash of an Uber self-driving car in Tempe, Arizona in 2018. Uber is now leaning into strategic partnerships instead of trying to build everything in-house. Its latest alliance with Lucid and Nuro builds on similar moves with Waymo, Volkswagen, and Baidu. The idea here is to tap into Lucid’s electric SUV platform and Nuro’s self-driving tech to make robotaxis a real part of Uber’s future, without taking on the massive cost and complexity of building it all from scratch.
“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,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
Just earlier this week, Uber revealed another major partnership. It was with China’s Baidu to roll out robotaxis in non-U.S. markets. Baidu’s already running test vehicles in Dubai, and there’s talk of expanding into Europe down the line. As of now, in Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, or Abu Dhabi, once can actually book an autonomous ride through the Uber app.
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On the other hand, Lucid’s stock shot up by around 30 to 45% after the news broke, making it one of the company’s biggest single-day jumps in recent years. “This partnership is a powerful validation of what our team at Lucid has been building for years. Our fully redundant zonal architecture and highly capable software-defined vehicle platform, coupled with our industry-leading range and spacious, well-appointed interiors, make the Lucid Gravity an ideal vehicle for autonomous ridesharing,” said Marc Winterhoff, interim CEO, Lucid Motors.
With Waymo already running in several U.S. cities, Tesla testing its robotaxis in Austin, and Amazon’s Zoox moving fast too, Uber’s partnership with Lucid and Nuro is likely its strongest push to be in the competition of autonomous ride-hailing and they’re making that clear with this bold move.