\u201cThis is a very, very big deal,\u201d Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, said in an interview. \u201cIn terms of the scale and the hard commitments and the meat behind it, it is by far the biggest partnership deal that Uber has announced or done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very, very big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uber is investing $300 million in Lucid, a spokesperson for the automaker, Nick Twork, confirmed. The investment in Nuro will be \u201csignificantly more than that,\u201d Ferguson said, though he declined to share an exact figure. As part of the deal, Uber will take a seat on Nuro\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n
Uber\u2019s decision to pour hundreds of millions of dollars in both companies underscores its desire to become a clearinghouse<\/a> for both electric and autonomous vehicles of all stripes. The ridehail company has said it wants to use its size and scale to aid in the proliferation of autonomous vehicles across the world. It has struck over a dozen deals over the past year with a variety of robotaxi and delivery robot companies, including Waymo<\/a>.<\/p>\n In choosing the sumptuously designed Gravity as its robotaxi platform, Uber will likely price this particular service in the upper tier like Uber Black. Lucid makes two luxury EVs, the Lucid Air sedan which starts at $69,900, and the Gravity SUV which starts at $79,900. In the current shaky EV market, Lucid is a niche player, delivering just 3,309 vehicles in the second quarter of 2025. The company is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, and it operates an assembly plant in the oil-rich nation.<\/p>\n This is Nuro\u2019s first major licensing deal after pivoting away from designing and building its own self-driving delivery vehicles. The California-based company said last year that licensing its autonomous tech<\/a> would be its main focus moving forward. Nuro\u2019s current fleet of vehicles, which operates in California and Texas, has traveled over 1 million miles autonomously without any major safety incidents.<\/p>\n Uber\u2019s investment comes at a crucial time for Nuro and Lucid, both of which have struggled with<\/a> layoffs<\/a> and other financial difficulties<\/a> in recent years. Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs, as well as his administration\u2019s move to eliminate Biden-era EV incentives, have put enormous pressure on the auto industry. And self-driving cars have taken longer and proven more costly<\/a> to develop than initially promised.<\/p>\n But even as most AV investments have dried up, Nuro continues to find financial support. The company is currently valued at $6 billion after raising $106 million in its latest funding round<\/a> last April. Lucid, which is publicly traded, has a market cap of approximately $7 billion.<\/p>\n Uber\u2019s investment comes at a crucial time for Nuro and Lucid.<\/p>\n Nuro will design the Level 4 autonomous technology to power the robotaxis. Lucid\u2019s workers will install the various sensors and hardware on the Gravity assembly line, after which it\u2019ll be updated with Nuro\u2019s software and commissioned by Uber. Nuro will also develop a safety case \u201cacross dozens of categories\u201d using simulation, closed-course testing, and supervised on-road testing. A prototype autonomous Gravity is currently being tested at Nuro\u2019s Las Vegas proving grounds<\/a>, which Ferguson said took seven weeks to develop.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a real testament to the quality of the engineering on the Lucid side,\u201d he said. \u201cThey designed these platforms to be L3 capable because they were intending on having that as a future product for their customers. And so, they were really nice to integrate all of our sensing compute onto and to turn into self-driving vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n (L3, or Level 3 automation means the vehicle can drive itself in most situations, but still requires human supervision. Level 4 vehicles can driver fully autonomously in certain environments without human supervision. Lucid just introduced a hands-free driving system<\/a> for highways.)<\/p>\n In many ways, the size of this deal \u2014 \u201ca minimum\u201d of 20,000 vehicles, but expected to be \u201cmuch, much more,\u201d Ferguson said \u2014 recalls some of the early promises from autonomous vehicle developers<\/a> about tens of thousands of vehicles on the road in just a few short years. Those early assumptions turned out to be way off, and most companies are still struggling to deliver even just a few self-driving cars. Today, Waymo is operating less than 2,000 vehicles<\/a> in a handful of markets as part of a commercial robotaxi service. Tesla has a few dozen robotaxis<\/a> in a small part of Austin, Texas. The rest are still in beta and still not open to the public \u2014 including the self-driving trucks, which have had their own problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ferguson said that\u2019s all about to change. Nuro has been operating driverless vehicles for several years now, albeit at low speeds and while avoiding highways. But he says the time is right to move on to the next level, and with Uber and Lucid in its corner, he\u2019s confident they\u2019ll reach these milestones.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really just a function of, at what level is the autonomy at and how many markets can it sustain,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cWithin those markets, these are big, big numbers and opportunities. And the vehicles will follow.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Nuro-Lucid-Uber-Robotaxi_2.jpg\"\/)
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