San Francisco, April 15, 2026, 04:41 PDT.
Uber is putting more than $10 billion behind robotaxis, gambling big on driverless cabs and moving further away from its traditional asset-light approach, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. According to Reuters, the plan could see Uber spending on both vehicles and equity stakes in autonomous driving partners, though the numbers couldn’t be independently confirmed. Uber hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
This matters right now for a straightforward reason: Uber’s been framing autonomy as a platform play, not just another research venture. Back in February, the company said it was investing real money with its vehicle partners to make sure it could lock in supply and ramp up deployment speed—evidence that the move from experimental pilots to actual balance-sheet bets had already started.
Reuters, citing the Financial Times, reports that over $7.5 billion of the sum is earmarked for robotaxi fleets, while roughly $2.5 billion will target equity investments, some of which hinge on deployment targets. Uber, the report notes, has teamed up in the sector with Baidu, Rivian, and Lucid, and the company’s road map includes rolling out robotaxi services in at least 28 cities by 2028.
Deals are piling up fast. Back in March, Rivian and Uber unveiled a plan: Uber will put as much as $1.25 billion into the venture by 2031, starting with an order for 10,000 autonomous R2s and an option for up to 40,000 more. A month earlier, Baidu and Uber announced their Apollo Go robotaxis are heading to the Uber app in Dubai.
Lucid announced Tuesday that Uber is boosting its investment in the EV company to $500 million and increasing its minimum commitment to 35,000 vehicles for Uber’s upcoming global robotaxi fleet. Nuro, Lucid’s autonomous tech partner for the project, said Uber employees have started taking test rides this week—an early move from paper plans to road trials.
“We continue to deepen our commitments with both Lucid and Nuro because both companies are executing extremely well against our fast-moving shared roadmap,” Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in Lucid’s release. Khosrowshahi also pointed to Lucid’s upcoming midsize platform, saying it might help push the program toward better unit economics — in other words, more profit per vehicle. Lucid Group, Inc.
Uber is betting that its scale—not its own self-driving tech—will give it the upper hand. Back in February, Sarfraz Maredia, Uber’s global head of autonomous mobility, called the company “the global platform where the autonomous vehicle industry can launch at scale.” Elsewhere, Uber described its autonomous unit as focused on handling infrastructure, user experience, and fleet management for its partners. Uber Investor Relations
The field’s packed. According to Reuters, Alphabet’s Waymo holds the front spot among commercial robotaxi operators, with Tesla eyeing its own rollout and betting its mass production muscle will set the pace. Uber, on the other hand, is angling to be the platform everyone else connects to.
The marketplace is expanding quickly. Back in March, Reuters noted Uber had teamed up with 25 autonomous vehicle tech firms, was already running rides in cities like Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, and Dubai, and aimed to become the world’s top platform for autonomous trips by 2029.
Still, the strategy comes with plenty of risk. The FT based its figures on both calculations and sources close to Uber’s agreements. Some of the payments hinge on hitting deployment milestones, and the expansion depends on deep-pocketed partners plus green lights from regulators. On Tuesday, Reuters cited BNP Paribas saying Lucid’s fundraising round might just scratch the surface—calling it “the tip of the iceberg”—and that it doesn’t “substantially address” the company’s liquidity concerns. Reuters
Uber says robotaxis won’t just cannibalize current rides—they’ll boost the total pie by increasing supply, cutting prices, and making service more reliable. Back in February, William Blair’s Ralph Schackart noted Uber’s core business and free cash flow could keep expanding as autonomous vehicles gain ground, even if the “AV debate” drags on. Reuters
