Uber is investing a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into EV maker Lucid and autonomous car 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 “a minimum of” 20,000 of the EV maker’s new Gravity SUV over the subsequent six years. These EVs might be outfitted with Nuro’s autonomous car system, and the automobiles might 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 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 advised TechCrunch.
“I feel that’s in all probability a mirrored image of how meaty it’s,” he stated, including that Uber was trying to make a really massive dedication to a robotaxi program, and frolicked with virtually each AV firm to search out essentially the most appropriate companion.
“We have been thrilled that, on the finish of all that, we have been the companion that was chosen.”
Ferguson stated engineers at Lucid and Nuro have already made progress on the undertaking. The businesses have been testing a prototype driverless car 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 car expertise corporations, overlaying the spectrum of how self-driving methods could 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 corporations Momenta, WeRide, and Baidu.
Uber’s most high-profile partnership within the U.S. — and one that’s commercially working as we speak — 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 prepared to put money into hopes of tapping into, and even dominating, the burgeoning autonomous car market.