Uber and Rivian want to bring 10,000 robotaxis to the road by 2031

Cash rain from Uber to Rivian: The two US companies are joining forces to bring up to 50,000 fully autonomous robotaxis to market in the coming years. As part of the agreement, Uber wants to invest 1.25 billion US dollars in Tesla rival and VW partner Rivian by 2031, provided the automaker meets certain autonomous driving specifications.

As the two companies announced jointly on Thursday, the first part of the payout, amounting to 300 million US dollars, will be paid out to Rivian upon signing the contract. The agreement is currently still subject to regulatory approval, according to the companies.

The first driverless vehicles based on the new Rivian model R2 are scheduled to be deployed in San Francisco and Miami starting in 2028. By 2031, Uber plans to expand the autonomous Rivian fleet to 25 cities in the USA, Canada, and Europe. The 10,000 R2s could just be the beginning, as the companies announced the possibility of negotiating the purchase of up to 40,000 additional autonomous Rivian R2 vehicles starting in 2030.

Currently, Rivian's plans for autonomous driving seem rather theoretical, as the company has so far only announced its plans and the technology behind them. Unlike Tesla's robotaxis, which rely solely on software and cameras, Rivian also incorporates lidar sensors. These laser radars, which Google's sister company Waymo also uses for its robotaxis, scan the vehicle's surroundings with their beams.

Uber is building a robotaxi platform

This is not Uber's first deal with an automaker for robotaxis; in July 2025, the company had a similar contract with Lucid, including an initial investment of 300 million dollars. At the time, similar to its current announcement with Rivian, Uber had also communicated its intention to deploy at least 20,000 Lucid vehicles equipped with Nuro Driver autonomous vehicle technology within six years.

Uber appears to be gradually upgrading its ride-hailing platform for robotaxis: just a few days ago, Amazon's robotaxi subsidiary Zoox announced a partnership with Uber. Via Uber, driverless robotaxis from Amazon's company Zoox will soon be orderable in some US cities. The partnership between the two companies is set to initially launch in Las Vegas and expand to Los Angeles next year. Furthermore, with the Uber app, driverless vehicles from Google's sister company Waymo can already be ordered in Austin, Atlanta, and Phoenix.

Rivian is also a VW partner

In addition to Uber's potential billions, Rivian is also raising significant funds from Europe's largest automaker, Volkswagen. The two companies are collaborating to establish Volkswagen's electronics architecture on a solid foundation. For this, VW could invest up to 5.8 billion US dollars in Rivian. In return for these billions, the Wolfsburg-based company gains access to Rivian's electronics architecture, hoping for help in solving its software problems. The billions from Germany and Uber provide Rivian with breathing room to ramp up production of a more affordable R2 model, which is intended to boost sales.

(afl)