Uber to spend money on Lucid and Nuro in huge robotaxi deal

Uber plans to make “multi-hundred-million greenback investments” in each Nuro and Lucid as a part of an enormous new robotaxi deal that was simply introduced.

The three firms are linking as much as deploy “20,000 or extra” robotaxis within the US over the subsequent six years. The automobiles will likely be Lucid’s new Gravity SUV, geared up with autonomous expertise developed by Nuro, and out there solely on Uber’s app. The fleet will likely be owned by Uber or a third-party fleet administration associate and the primary automobiles will launch in as-yet-to-be-determined US metropolis in 2026.

“It is a very, very massive deal,” Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, mentioned in an interview. “When it comes to the dimensions and the laborious commitments and the meat behind it, it’s by far the most important partnership deal that Uber has introduced or achieved.”

Uber is investing $300 million in Lucid, a spokesperson for the automaker, Nick Twork, confirmed. The funding in Nuro will likely be “considerably greater than that,” Ferguson mentioned, although he declined to share a precise determine. As a part of the deal, Uber will sit on Nuro’s board of administrators.

Uber’s choice to pour a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in each firms underscores its need to grow to be a clearinghouse for each electrical and autonomous automobiles of all stripes. The ridehail firm has mentioned it desires to make use of its dimension and scale to help within the proliferation of autonomous automobiles the world over. It has struck over a dozen offers over the previous yr with quite a lot of robotaxi and supply robotic firms, together with Waymo.

In selecting the sumptuously designed Gravity as its robotaxi platform, Uber will seemingly worth this explicit service within the higher tier like Uber Black. Lucid makes two luxurious EVs, the Lucid Air sedan which begins at $69,900, and the Gravity SUV which begins at $79,900. Within the present shaky EV market, Lucid is a distinct segment participant, delivering simply 3,309 automobiles within the second quarter of 2025. The corporate is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, and it operates an meeting plant within the oil-rich nation.

That is Nuro’s first main licensing deal after pivoting away from designing and constructing its personal self-driving supply automobiles. The California-based firm mentioned final yr that licensing its autonomous tech could be its most important focus transferring ahead. Nuro’s present fleet of automobiles, which operates in California and Texas, has traveled over 1 million miles autonomously with none main security incidents.

Uber’s funding comes at a vital time for Nuro and Lucid, each of which have struggled with layoffs and different monetary difficulties lately. Donald Trump’s tariffs, in addition to his administration’s transfer to remove Biden-era EV incentives, have put huge strain on the auto trade. And self-driving vehicles have taken longer and confirmed extra pricey to develop than initially promised.

However at the same time as most AV investments have dried up, Nuro continues to search out monetary help. The corporate is at the moment valued at $6 billion after elevating $106 million in its newest funding spherical final April. Lucid, which is publicly traded, has a market cap of roughly $7 billion.

Nuro will design the Stage 4 autonomous expertise to energy the robotaxis. Lucid’s staff will set up the assorted sensors and {hardware} on the Gravity meeting line, after which it’ll be up to date with Nuro’s software program and commissioned by Uber. Nuro can even develop a security case “throughout dozens of classes” utilizing simulation, closed-course testing, and supervised on-road testing. A prototype autonomous Gravity is at the moment being examined at Nuro’s Las Vegas proving grounds, which Ferguson mentioned took seven weeks to develop.

“That could be a actual testomony to the standard of the engineering on the Lucid facet,” he mentioned. “They designed these platforms to be L3 succesful as a result of they had been intending on having that as a future product for his or her prospects. And so, they had been very nice to combine all of our sensing compute onto and to show into self-driving automobiles.”

(L3, or Stage 3 automation means the automobile can drive itself in most conditions, however nonetheless requires human supervision. Stage 4 automobiles can driver absolutely autonomously in sure environments with out human supervision. Lucid simply launched a hands-free driving system for highways.)

In some ways, the dimensions of this deal — “a minimal” of 20,000 automobiles, however anticipated to be “a lot, far more,” Ferguson mentioned — recollects among the early guarantees from autonomous automobile builders about tens of hundreds of automobiles on the street in just some brief years. These early assumptions turned out to be method off, and most firms are nonetheless struggling to ship even just some self-driving vehicles. At this time, Waymo is working lower than 2,000 automobiles in a handful of markets as a part of a industrial robotaxi service. Tesla has a couple of dozen robotaxis in a small a part of Austin, Texas. The remaining are nonetheless in beta and nonetheless not open to the general public — together with the self-driving vehicles, which have had their very own issues.

Ferguson mentioned that’s all about to vary. Nuro has been working driverless automobiles for a number of years now, albeit at low speeds and whereas avoiding highways. However he says the time is true to maneuver on to the subsequent degree, and with Uber and Lucid in its nook, he’s assured they’ll attain these milestones.

“It’s actually only a operate of, at what degree is the autonomy at and what number of markets can it maintain,” Ferguson mentioned. “Inside these markets, these are massive, massive numbers and alternatives. And the automobiles will comply with.