The Battle of the Robotaxis Is Beginning
Competition between Uber, Tesla and Waymo is heating up in the autonomous vehicle space, and it's not clear who will prevail.
Changing lanes.
Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
Conventional wisdom has it that the rise of robotaxis is bad for Uber Technologies Inc. and oh so good for Tesla Inc. But conventional wisdom is the antithesis of disruption, and along comes a deal on Thursday to hammer home the point: Uber’s autonomous vehicle partnership with Lucid Group Inc. and Nuro Inc. Tesla, in particular, should watch out.
The three companies are teaming up to build a fleet of at least 20,000 robotaxis, using Lucid’s Gravity electric SUV fitted with Nuro’s AV system, and owned and operated by Uber or third-party partners. They plan to deploy the first ones next year in an unnamed major US city. As part of the deal, Uber will invest in both companies. For Lucid, the funding is to refit its assembly line to incorporate Nuro’s technology. But along with the sales pipeline, it refits Lucid’s distressed stock: Having fallen by nearly 90% over the past three years, it jumped by more than a third on Thursday morning as an army of shorts got squeezed.