Uber Technologies Inc. will offer a driverless robotaxi service in Houston developed by Lucid Group Inc. and Nuro Inc., taking on Waymo in the fourth-largest U.S. city.
Nuro is already testing the vehicles in Houston, but the service won’t launch until mid-2027, Uber said in a statement Wednesday. An Uber spokesperson declined to say how many cars will be available in Houston, saying more details will be shared closer to launch. Lucid expects to expand its fleet of test vehicles produced at its Arizona factory in the coming weeks for further safety validation and certification needed to put self-driving vehicles on the road.
The move is a step by Uber toward Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, which is also a partner in the ride-hailing company. Uber and Waymo are currently working together supply Waymo uses Uber app in Austin, Atlanta and Phoenix, but Waymo offers its services Operates independently in major urban markets such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas.
Uber abandons building its own self-driving cars Sell Its in-house research team will be established in 2020. Instead, it focuses on building the infrastructure and providing the services needed for commercial robo-taxi operations. As part of that effort, it has struck more than a dozen deals with robotaxi developers in recent years — betting that in the future it can become the go-to platform for self-driving cars and human drivers in the United States and abroad.
Uber has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and Nuro and plans to offer robotaxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of a broader partnership with the two companies announced last year. April, Uber expand Lucid has pledged to buy at least 35,000 robotaxis and says it will sell them in dozens of markets over the next few years.
The ride-sharing giant said that now that Nuro, which develops self-driving technology, has completed plans to launch a robotaxi service in the Bay Area this year, Received California allows driverless testing and transporting passengers accompanied by a safety driver. (Paid rides and driverless passenger trips still require additional approval.)
Uber said it has signed a multi-year lease for a 50,000-square-foot garage and dedicated Lucid-Nuro vehicle charging stations in Houston. The facility will be equipped with 40 fast chargers and 15 maintenance stations, it added. Construction is expected to begin in early 2027.
“These facilities will serve as the operational backbone for Uber’s autonomous robotaxi program with Lucid and Nuro and enable Uber and its fleet partners to manage charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning and other daily fleet operations at scale,” the company said. Uber said it would share more details about its Houston fleet partners at a later date.
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