Uber is building an autonomous vehicle empire: partnerships with more than 30 companies
After abandoning its own autonomous vehicle development, Uber has re-entered the sector with a global network of over 30 partnerships and investments. TechCrunch tracks all of Uber's moves in one place.
Uber has partnered with and in some cases invested in more than 30 autonomous vehicle (AV) companies over the past two years. This marks a return to a field the company left in 2020, when it sold its Uber ATG unit to focus on its core ride-hailing and delivery businesses.
Uber originally developed its own AV technology, creating the Advanced Technologies Group in 2014 and testing on public roads by 2016. However, after a trade secrets lawsuit from Waymo, the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick in 2017, and a fatal pedestrian crash in Tempe, Arizona in 2018, Uber suspended testing. The company sold ATG to Aurora in 2020 but kept equity stakes in several ventures.
Now Uber is aggressively rebuilding its AV presence. One notable partner is Aurora, which acquired Uber ATG; Uber still holds a significant stake and Aurora's self-driving trucks operate on Uber Freight. Another major deal is with Lucid Motors, where Uber invested a total of $500 million and ordered at least 35,000 vehicles for a premium robotaxi service launching in San Francisco and Houston, powered by Nuro's technology.
The list is extensive. Avride provides sidewalk delivery robots and robotaxis, while Baidu plans to deploy thousands of Apollo Go vehicles in markets outside the U.S. and mainland China. Motional already offers autonomous rides in Las Vegas, albeit with safety monitors. Other partners include Autobrains, Avomo, Cartken, Coco, Flytrex, Hertz, May Mobility, Mercedes, Momenta, Nissan, and more. Some partnerships have fizzled, such as Cruise, which General Motors shut down.
TechCrunch will keep updating this tracker as Uber announces new deals.
