Uber, Nuro test robotaxi rides in San Francisco

Uber has expanded internal robotaxi tests in San Francisco, allowing some employees to book rides in Lucid Gravity SUVs using Nuro‘s self-driving system through the Uber app ahead of a planned public launch later this year.

Nuro, an autonomous driving startup, said the vehicles are operating in autonomous mode with a human safety operator behind the wheel.

The test expands a July 2025 partnership in which Uber invested US$300 million in Lucid, made a separate undisclosed investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Nuro, and agreed to buy at least 20,000 Gravity SUVs over six years.

Nuro said it has 100 modified Gravity SUVs in its engineering fleet after starting public road tests late last year, with employee rides used to assess the driving system and pickup and drop-off performance.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Nuro’s California disengagement rate slipped during public-road tests

Uber ramped up in-house robotaxi trials with Nuro, while Nuro recorded weaker disengagement results on California public roads in 2025 than in 2024 1.
During 2025 testing, Nuro averaged 646 miles per disengagement, so a human safety operator stepped in about once every 646 miles, down from 2,044 miles in 2024 2.
Competitors went farther between interventions in the same period. Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving vehicle unit, reached about 19,234 miles per disengagement, while Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle company, hit about 60,682 miles per disengagement 1.
Total mileage for Nuro reached 157,561 miles on California roads in 2025. RAND, a U.S. policy research organization, has said safety proof on fatalities and injuries could take hundreds of millions of miles, and sometimes billions 2.

A partner-led setup for autonomous ride-hailing

After shutting down its own self-driving program in 2020, Uber now leans on partners for robotaxi work 3.
In the three-company plan, Lucid supplies Lucid Gravity sport utility vehicles 4.
Nuro adds the Nuro Driver’ Level 4 self-driving system 4.
For deployment, Uber provides the ride-hailing platform and targets 20,000 or more vehicles over six years. Uber or third-party fleet partners will own and operate them 4.
This mix-and-match structure lets specialists compete with vertically integrated players like Alphabet-backed Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox, offering another route to commercialization 5.
Separately, Uber also works with Waymo and Volkswagen, which lowers dependence on one self-driving provider 3.