Uber has picked San Francisco to launch a premium robotaxi service that will use Lucid Motors\u2019 all-electric Gravity SUVs equipped with self-driving tech developed by Nuro, in 2026 \u2014 a move that puts the ride-hailing giant in direct competition with Waymo.<\/p>\n
The announcement was made as the last day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025<\/a> kicked off in San Francisco. Nuro president and co-CEO Dave Ferguson, and Uber chief product officer Sachin Kansal are scheduled to be interviewed on the Disrupt stage Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bay Area has long been the birthplace of transformative technology, and it\u2019s only fitting that Uber\u2019s next-generation robotaxi program with Lucid and Nuro will begin here \u2014 launching to the public next year,\u201d Kansal said in a statement. \u201cBy combining deep expertise in electric vehicles, autonomy, and ridehailing, we\u2019re laying the groundwork for safe and scalable autonomous rides in the Bay Area and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Uber said it would invest $300 million<\/a> in Lucid and separately buy \u201cat least\u201d 20,000 of its new Gravity SUVs over the next six years as part of a plan to develop and launch a premium robotaxi service. Those EVs would be equipped with Nuro\u2019s autonomous vehicle system, and owned and operated by Uber or its third-party fleet partners. At the time, the three companies had not identified their launch market.<\/p>\n The decision to launch in San Francisco could add tension to Uber\u2019s relationship with Waymo. The companies had squared off in 2018 in a trade secrets theft case<\/a>, but have since patched up \u2014 earlier this year, they launched\u00a0a robotaxi service\u00a0<\/a>in Austin and Atlanta. In 2023, the companies partnered to make Waymos available on the Uber app in Phoenix<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, Uber is entering a domain dominated by the Alphabet-owned self-driving division. Waymo, based in Mountain View, California, operates commercial robotaxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. The company has said it plans to launch in six more cities in 2026.<\/p>\n Uber, Nuro, and Lucid are already developing a fleet of test vehicles. Lucid recently delivered vehicles to Nuro, which is integrating its self-driving system into the fleet for testing and validation. The test fleet is expected to reach about 100 vehicles, according to the companies.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco Testing on public roads will be the most visible sign of the partnership, but Nuro also plans to use simulation and closed courses for testing.<\/p>\n Over the past two years, Uber has locked in a bevy of partnerships with autonomous vehicle technology companies, covering the spectrum of how self-driving systems can be applied to the physical world \u2014 although its deals with Waymo, Nuro, and Lucid might be the meatiest. The ride-hailing giant has partnered with more than 18 companies globally, across\u00a0ride-hailing<\/a>, delivery, and trucking. This year alone, it announced deals with\u00a0Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May Mobility<\/a> and\u00a0Volkswagen<\/a>, as well as Chinese self-driving firms Momenta,\u00a0WeRide<\/a>, and Baidu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uber has picked San Francisco to launch a premium robotaxi service that will use Lucid Motors\u2019 all-electric Gravity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[22081,22082,101,103,102,104,106,105,3986],"class_list":{"0":"post-29969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-lucid-motors","9":"tag-robotaxi","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sf","14":"tag-sf-headlines","15":"tag-sf-news","16":"tag-uber"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n