- Uber is planning to deploy Lucid Gravity robotaxis in Houston, Texas, next year.
- The ride-hail giant is gearing up to deploy the Gravity EVs in San Francisco this year.
- It has also secured a giant depot in Houston for charging and maintenance.
Lucid and Uber will expand their robotaxi partnership to Houston in mid-2027, the companies announced Wednesday, as both vie for a piece of the growing market for autonomous driving that’s currently dominated by Alphabet’s Waymo.
The announcement builds on a three-way partnership that Lucid, Uber, and the self-driving technology firm Nuro announced last July. The companies aim to deploy robotaxis based on the Gravity SUV—and powered by Nuro software—in San Francisco by the end of this year. The next stop will be Houston, where Uber has secured a 50,000-square-foot depot where the vehicles will be charged, cleaned, and maintained.
The depot will have access to four megawatts of power and will be equipped with 40 fast chargers and 15 service bays. It will be officially up and running by early 2027, the companies said.
Paid rides are not available for customers yet through the Lucid deal, but the collaboration has grown substantially in both scale and ambition since last summer. Lucid delivered the first Gravity to Nuro about eight months ago for engineering and testing purposes. Lucid manufactures the actual cars, while Nuro is in charge of the self-driving software and hardware. Uber is the platform customers will eventually use to book rides.
In eight months, Nuro’s engineering fleet has grown to nearly 100 Gravitys, which have been mapping streets and collecting driving data in California and Texas before official paid rides begin.
Uber has also expanded its partnership with Lucid, increasing the number of promised vehicle purchases from 20,000 to 35,000, and growing its investment in the startup from $300 million to $500 million. EVs riding on Lucid’s next-generation midsize platform will also be deployed as robotaxis on the Uber app in the future.
The race to deploy driverless ride-hailing vehicles is heating up in the U.S. Waymo leads with driverless taxis available in 11 U.S. cities, including Austin, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Late last year, Amazon’s Zoox opened its service, based around steering wheel-free pods, to the public. To get in on the action, Uber has inked a slew of deals with car manufacturers and self-driving companies alike.
Waymo robotaxis are already available on the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta. Uber has also partnered with Rivian to buy as many as 50,000 Rivian R2s to deploy as robotaxis. The ride-hailing giant has partnered with some 20 companies across automotive, trucking, and delivery to ensure it isn’t left behind as more of driving goes autonomous.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com