Look Out Tesla There’s A New Robotaxi In City

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been taking his share of flack for promising a lot on robotaxis and delivering short time different corporations take off. He higher decide up the tempo earlier than Tesla finds itself behind a big and rising pack. Amongst different rivals, the US-headquartered, Saudi-backed EV startup Lucid Motors has thrown its hat into the robotaxi ring underneath a partnership with Uber, thereby hooking itself up with the main automotive rental agency Hertz as properly. Sure, that Hertz.

Lucid Robotaxis Are Coming

By way of competing with Tesla for a share of the luxurious EV market within the US, Lucid has quite a lot of catching as much as do. The corporate launched in 2007, only a few years after Tesla. Not like Tesla, Lucid didn’t obtain a beneficiant $465 million mortgage assure from the US Division of Power to assist kick it into excessive gear. Nevertheless, the corporate did get a wholesome help from different buyers, together with the Public Funding Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, the place assist for the automobile electrification motion has been rising as an financial improvement technique.

Though Lucid’s US gross sales are nonetheless minuscule in comparison with Tesla’s, the corporate is likely one of the few to see gross sales improve after US President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress took a chopper to the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score final September. As anticipated, many automakers noticed their year-on-year EV gross sales plunge within the 4th quarter of 2025 in comparison with This autumn 2024, however not Lucid. CleanTechnica famous a rise of 912 gross sales for the Lucid Gravity SUV, from 230 in This autumn 2024 to 1,142 in This autumn 2025. The Lucid Air sedan additionally got here out forward, rising 625 gross sales from 2,563 to three,188.

The Uber connection surfaced final yr, when Lucid joined Uber in partnership with the autonomous automobile and robotics agency Nuro.

“Bringing collectively the consolation, spaciousness and expertise of the Lucid Gravity, the scalability and confirmed functionality of the Nuro Driver™ Degree 4 autonomy system, and Uber’s huge international market, we’re set to ship a robotaxi providing not like the rest on the highway right this moment,” Lucid enthused in a press assertion asserting the brand new partnership.

Lucid delivered the primary automobiles to Nuro for testing in September. The testing routine included Nuro’s check observe in Las Vegas and supervised drives across the San Francisco Bay Space, adopted by unsupervised drives in December.

Plans are already within the works to leverage Uber’s community in different cities within the US and globally, with Lucid ramping up manufacturing at its Casa Grande, Arizona, manufacturing facility to fulfill demand.

The Good Electrical Robotaxi Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

The three companions displayed the brand new robotaxi on the Shopper Electronics Present in Las Vegas in January, the place they pitched key options, together with:

• A next-gen sensor array that includes high-resolution cameras, solid-state lidar sensors, and radars that gives 360-degree notion.
• Halo-mounted built-in LEDs assist riders simply determine the right automobile, show rider initials, and supply clear standing updates from pickup by way of dropoff.
• An intuitive in-ride expertise … with interactive screens that allow riders personalize their autonomous journey.
• In-vehicle visualization that reveals what the robotaxi sees and its deliberate path in real-time.
• A flexible, spacious structure with configurations that comfortably match as much as six passengers and provide beneficiant baggage house. The companions additionally famous that the brand new robotaxi “leverages compute based mostly on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor, a part of the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion platform, supporting the real-time AI processing and system integration required for superior autonomous driving.”

Lucid additionally emphasised the brand new automobile’s deep roots in its driver-centric EVs. “The issues that make a Lucid an distinctive automobile are basically the identical issues that make it an incredible robotaxi. Providing an unimaginable vary, comfy seating for six passengers, a premium expertise and cavernous inside house for everybody’s baggage, you could have a profitable mixture,” Lucid enthused.

Apparently, Uber has already seen sufficient to persuade itself. On April 14, Lucid reminded everybody that Uber has dedicated to at the least 35,000 Lucid automobiles that shall be unique to Uber’s forthcoming robotaxi service.

“The corporate has additionally dedicated to a further $200 million funding in Lucid, elevating Uber’s whole investments to $500 million thus far,” Lucid reported. The automaker moreover took be aware of a brand new $550 million funding from the PIF affiliate Ayar Third Funding.

The Hertz Connection

Hertz entered the image on April 30, when it issued a joint press launch with Uber to announce two strategic partnerships alongside the launch of the brand new Hertz-affiliated agency Oro Mobility.

Oro describes itself as a fleet administration agency specializing in security and automobile high quality, supporting each drivers and robotaxis. Oro piloted its driver-led administration system for Uber in Atlanta final yr. The corporate’s driver platform has now been activated in San Francisco and Los Angeles. North Jersey shall be on board quickly as properly.

The robotaxi partnership is anticipated to launch within the San Francisco Bay Space later this yr, with further places into account for subsequent yr.

“By means of its partnerships with Uber, Oro will ship scalable operational and upkeep providers throughout each autonomous and driver‑led operations in key U.S. markets, reflecting the breadth of the businesses’ collaboration throughout a number of mobility fashions,” Hertz and Uber summarized in a press assertion.

In case you’re pondering Hertz might give Tesla a crack at its robotaxi enterprise, possibly. Or possibly not, contemplating Hertz’s previous expertise with Tesla.

Again in 2021 Hertz introduced formidable plans so as to add 100,000 Teslas to its fleet by the tip of 2022. Solely 35,000 had been reportedly bought and by 2023 the bloom was off the rose. Upkeep prices for the Tesla EVs had been greater than anticipated, renters had been extra accident-prone when driving a Tesla, and the automobiles had been depreciating at an alarming fee. As well as, the general public EV charging station community was not as superior as it’s right this moment, and Hertz reportedly uncared for to advise new EV drivers on learn how to recharge their batteries.

The Tesla expertise didn’t poison Hertz in opposition to EVs perpetually and all time, as the brand new partnership with Lucid and Uber demonstrates. “Oro will assist Uber’s autonomous robotaxi program of Lucid automobiles geared up with Nuro AV expertise, offering day-to-day automobile asset administration, together with charging, upkeep, repairs, cleansing, and depot staffing,” the companions clarify.

As for Tesla, Musk has not achieved the model any favors in recent times, having aligned himself with the white supremacist motion amongst different missteps in assist of US President Donald Trump.

Don’t simply take our phrase for it. “‘Whites are a quickly dying minority,’” Musk wrote in January in a publish on his social media web site X that has garnered greater than 17 million views and 150,000 likes,” the Washington Put up reported earlier right this moment, noting that Musk has virtually tripled his musings on race up to now in 2026 in comparison with the earlier two years, to 850.

Actually, 850 posts on race? The place’s the hearth? When you have any ideas about that, drop a be aware within the remark thread.

Photograph (cropped, lightened): The US startup Lucid Motors has attached with Uber and the autonomous mobility specialist Nuro in a robotaxi partnership supported by the brand new Hertz fleet administration affiliate Oro (courtesy of Nuro).