Nam Y. Huh/AP
- Uber, Lucid, and Nuro will put robotaxis on the streets of San Francisco next year.
- The companies said they plan to test the service with about 100 vehicles in the coming months.
- The self-driving vehicles join others from Waymo and Tesla that are already in the Bay Area.
Expect to see even more robotaxis in San Francisco next year — this time from Uber.
The ride-hailing app said Wednesday that self-driving cars developed for its partnership with Lucid and Nuro will start transporting passengers around the San Francisco Bay Area in 2026. Testing for the service, which has already begun, will involve about 100 vehicles over the next few months, Uber said.
“The Bay Area has long been the birthplace of transformative technology, and it’s only fitting that Uber’s next-generation robotaxi program with Lucid and Nuro will begin here — launching to the public next year,” Uber’s chief product officer, Sachin Kansal, said in a statement.
Uber said in July that it would invest $300 million in vehicle producer Lucid as the ride-hailing service got back into the self-driving car game. Uber sold its autonomous vehicle division in 2020.
Under the new partnership, Nuro’s self-driving technology will power some of Lucid’s electric Gravity SUVs. The companies had disclosed plans to get the cars into service in a US city as part of their July announcement, but did not specify which one at the time.
The self-driving cars have competition on the streets of San Francisco. Waymo already operates self-driving cars for riders looking to get around central San Francisco, and Tesla operates self-driving taxis in the Bay Area.
Self-driving cars have also become common in other US cities, such as Phoenix, where riders can hail a robotaxi using Waymo’s app. Uber is also partnering with Waymo in Atlanta and Austin. Tesla also has self-driving cars in Austin.
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