Uber to Deploy 100,000 Nvidia-Powered Robotaxis
Partnership With Stellantis and Foxconn Aims to Cut Costs and Scale Self-Driving Fleet
Key Takeaways:
- Uber will expand a fleet of 100,000 autonomous vehicles using Nvidia technology starting in 2027, marking a major step toward large-scale robotaxi deployment.
- The collaboration includes Stellantis producing at least 5,000 Nvidia-powered robotaxis and aims to reduce operating costs and accelerate Uber’s autonomous ride-hailing business.
- Pilot programs will begin in the U.S. before 2028, as Uber and Nvidia develop a data platform to train AI models and advance profitable autonomous operations.
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Uber Technologies Inc. will begin expanding a fleet of 100,000 autonomous vehicles powered by Nvidia Corp. technology starting in 2027, an ambitious move that could help bring down the cost of offering hailable robotaxis to consumers.
The announcement builds on an earlier partnership the two companiesin January, with Uber agreeing to offer some of its driving data to help improve Nvidia’s artificial intelligence models and chip technology that carmakers can use to develop autonomous vehicles. On Oct. 28, Nvidia unveiled a new technology platform — Nvidia Drive AGX Hyperion 10 — that lets manufacturers equip their cars with hardware and sensors that can work with compatible autonomous-driving software.
As part of the collaboration, Stellantis NV will be among the first automakers to deliver at least 5,000 Nvidia-powered robotaxis for Uber’s operations in the U.S. and internationally, Uber said in a statement Oct. 28. The ride-hailing giant will oversee end-to-end fleet operations for those vehicles, including remote assistance, charging, cleaning, maintenance and customer support, it said.
Stellantis will work with Foxconn on hardware and systems integration, the carmaker said in a separate statement. Start of production is targeted for 2028, with initial operations with Uber to start in the U.S. Pilot programs and testing are expected to ramp up over the coming years, it said.
The commitments allow Uber to make more robotaxis available on its platform, which could in turn help improve the cost of operating and commercializing an otherwise expensive technology. The company has partnered with more than a dozen autonomous developers, and has committed toinvestingin some, as it bets on a future where robotaxis and human drivers complement each other.
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Shares of Uber jumped as much as 1.2% after the announcement.
Uber currently offers autonomous rides in Austin and Atlanta with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, as well as with China’s WeRide Inc. in. But the size of the fleet is limited: Uber has said it expects to expand its fleet with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta to “hundreds” over time. That’s still small compared with Uber’s human gig workforce, which includes millions of rideshare drivers and couriers.
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That makes it difficult for Uber to eke out profit margins and realize gains from operating robotaxi vehicles, a process that Uber currently outsources to fleet operators for daily charging, cleaning and maintenance.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during the keynote address at the Nvidia AI summit in Washington on Oct. 28. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg)
The Nvidia partnership, on the other hand, will help boost the availability of those cars and eventually lower that cost over time. Uber’s future and existing robotaxi partners, including developersAvride, May Mobility Inc.,Momenta,Nuro Inc., Pony.ai,Wayve Technologies Ltd.and WeRide, will be able to use Nvidia’s technology to contribute to that fleet of 100,000 cars that will eventually be on the Uber ride-hailing platform.
The 100,000 target includes the 20,000 Lucid Gravity and Nuro vehicles that Uber in Julycommittedto purchasing and operating with other partners over six years.
Uber is also working with Nvidia to build a “robotaxi data factory” for autonomous-vehicle development. Uber will collect more than three million hours of robotaxi-specific driving data to fuel driverless model training and validation, the rideshare company said in the statement. Nvidia will provide the processors, AI models and associated tools for data curation, search and simulation as part of the collaboration.
“Together, these capabilities form a powerful data engine — spanning ingestion, labeling, scenario mining, synthetic data generation and large-scale training — that aims to shorten the path from pilot to profitable autonomy deployment,” Uber said in the statement.
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