Uber makes multi-million-dollar funding in Lucid and Nuro to construct a premium robotaxi service

Uber is investing a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} into EV maker Lucid and autonomous automobile expertise startup Nuro in a bid to launch its personal premium robotaxi service.

Below the deal introduced Thursday, Uber will make investments $300 million in Lucid and individually purchase “no less than” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the subsequent six years. These EVs will probably be outfitted with Nuro’s autonomous automobile system, and the automobiles will probably be owned and operated by Uber or its third-party fleet companions. Uber plans to launch a robotaxi service in a significant U.S. metropolis subsequent yr.

Manufacturing of those modified Lucid Gravity automobiles is predicted to start in late 2026, in keeping with a regulatory submitting.

Uber can also be investing an undisclosed “multi-hundred-million greenback” quantity into Nuro. One supply acquainted with the settlement mentioned the quantity is greater than Uber’s funding in Lucid. 

The settlement between the three firms was a yr within the making, Nuro co-founder and president Dave Ferguson instructed TechCrunch.

“I feel that’s most likely a mirrored image of how meaty it’s,” he mentioned, including that Uber was trying to make a really giant dedication to a robotaxi program, and frolicked with nearly each AV firm to search out probably the most appropriate companion.

“We have been thrilled that, on the finish of all that, we have been the companion that was chosen.”

Ferguson mentioned engineers at Lucid and Nuro have already made progress on the mission. The businesses have been testing a prototype driverless automobile on a closed monitor at Nuro’s proving grounds in Las Vegas.

Uber has spent the previous two years locking in partnerships with autonomous automobile expertise firms, protecting the spectrum of how self-driving techniques might be utilized to the bodily world. The ride-hailing big has partnered with greater than 18 firms globally, throughout ride-hailing, supply, and trucking. Simply this yr alone, it introduced offers with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Might Mobility Volkswagen, in addition to Chinese language self-driving corporations Momenta, WeRide, and Baidu.

Uber’s most high-profile partnership within the U.S. — and one that’s commercially working right now — is with Waymo. The businesses provide a “Waymo on Uber” service in Austin and Atlanta.

This deal illustrates simply how a lot cash Uber is prepared to spend money on hopes of tapping into, and even dominating, the burgeoning autonomous automobile market.