Uber is investing a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into EV maker Lucid and autonomous automobile expertise startup Nuro in a bid to launch its personal premium robotaxi service.
Beneath the deal introduced on Thursday, Uber will make investments $300 million in Lucid and individually purchase “at the least” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the following six years. These EVs can be geared up with Nuro’s autonomous automobile system, and the automobiles can 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 12 months.
Uber can also be investing an undisclosed “multi-hundred-million greenback” quantity into Nuro. One supply accustomed to the settlement stated the quantity is greater than Uber’s funding in Lucid.
The settlement between the three corporations was a 12 months within the making, Nuro co-founder and president Dave Ferguson informed TechCrunch.
“I feel that’s in all probability a mirrored image of how meaty it’s,” he stated, including that Uber was seeking to make a really massive dedication to a robotaxi program, and frolicked with virtually each AV firm to search out probably the most appropriate associate.
“We have been thrilled that, on the finish of all that, we have been the associate that was chosen.”
Ferguson stated engineers at Lucid and Nuro have already made progress on the challenge. The businesses have been testing a prototype driverless automobile on a closed monitor at Nuro’s proving grounds in Las Vegas.
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Uber has spent the previous two years locking in partnerships with autonomous automobile expertise corporations, masking the spectrum of how self-driving techniques may be utilized to the bodily world. The ride-hailing big has partnered with greater than 18 corporations globally, throughout ride-hailing, supply, and trucking. Simply this 12 months alone, it introduced offers with Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Might Mobility Volkswagen, in addition to Chinese language self-driving companies Momenta, WeRide, and Baidu.
Uber’s most high-profile partnership within the U.S. — and one that’s commercially working at this time — is with Waymo. The businesses supply a “Waymo on Uber” service in Austin and Atlanta.
This deal illustrates simply how a lot cash Uber is keen to spend money on hopes of tapping into, and even dominating, the burgeoning autonomous automobile market.
