Uber Technologies Inc. plans to deploy at least 20,000 autonomous taxis through two new partnerships that it announced today.

Lucid Group Inc., a Nasdaq-traded automaker, will build the vehicles. Venture-backed startup Nuro Inc. is set to provide autonomous driving software for those vehicles. As part of the collaboration, Uber is reportedly investing $300 million in Lucid and an unspecified larger sum in Nuro.

The partnership centers on Lucid’s Gravity electric SUV, which can cover up to 450 miles per charge with seven passengers aboard. Uber’s taxi fleet will be based on a modified version of the Gravity that is set to enter production in late 2026. Lucid will equip the SUV with an autonomous driving module made by Nuro during assembly.

Nuro Driver, as the module is called, is powered by Nvidia Corp.’s DRIVE Thor system-on-chip. It’s a vehicle processor based on the Blackwell architecture that powers the company’s latest data center graphics cards. Nvidia says that DRIVE Thor can provide 1 petaflop of processing capacity for autonomous driving software.

The Nuro Driver combines the chip with cameras, lidar sensors and radar units. Nuro trains the artificial intelligence models that run on the hardware using a custom simulation platform. The company says that the platform harnesses AI agents and synthetic data to make road simulations more realistic, which streamlines model training.

Uber plans to equip its modified Gravity SUVs with Level 4 autonomy. This term describes vehicles that can operate without human input under most driving conditions, but only in a limited area. The driver can take over in the event of a technical issue.

The Nuro Driver’s Level 4 autonomy features represent an upgrade over the more limited Level 3 software in the standard version of the Gravity SUV. The standard version can park itself, help drivers switch lanes and perform a number of other tasks. The Gravity’s autonomy features are powered by redundant electronics, which means that several components have backups the vehicle can quickly activate. 

Nuro plans to run a series of safety tests to ensure that Uber’s self-driving taxis will operate reliably. The initiative encompasses simulations, closed course evaluations and testing on public roads. Lucid, meanwhile, is gearing up to begin autonomous taxi production in 2026.

Uber says that some of the vehicles built through the collaboration will be owned and operated by “third-party fleet partners.” To start, the company will bring its autonomous taxi service to a single U.S. city in late 2026. It plans to deploy upwards of 20,000 vehicles over the subsequent six years.

Uber already offers an autonomous taxi service through a partnership with Waymo LLC. The Alphabet Inc. unit’s self-driving vehicles are accessible to users in Austin and Atlanta. Additionally, Uber partnered with a startup called May Mobility Inc. earlier this year to make thousands of autonomous minivans available through its app. 

Photo: Uber