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uber said on Wednesday that san francisco bay area This will be the first market for its purpose-built autonomous taxi, which is expected to launch in late 2026.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company said in July it was developing a robotaxi with the electric car company clear meaning and self-driving technology company Nuro Inc. The vehicle is exclusive to Uber but is based on the Lucid Gravity SUV.
Uber said Lucid recently delivered test vehicles to Nuro. Uber said it plans to put 100 test vehicles on the road in the coming months.
Uber said it plans to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid-based autonomous taxis in multiple locations within six years. The vehicles will be available to riders through the Uber app.
Uber is working with several companies to accelerate the deployment of autonomous taxis.
On Tuesday, Uber said it is also developing robotaxis with the tech company NVIDIA and automaker Stellantis. Uber said on Tuesday that in 2028, Stellantis expects to begin production of at least 5,000 vehicles powered by Nvidia software for autonomous taxi operations in the US.
And last week, Uber said it had started offering autonomous taxi rides in Saudi Arabia under a partnership with Chinese autonomous tech company WeRide.
Autonomous taxis aren’t new, but as the world’s largest ride-hailing service, Uber’s adoption of them is significant. Uber operates in 15,000 cities in more than 70 countries.
Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, has been testing autonomous taxis for years. Those taxis are currently available in Phoenix, san franciscoLos Angeles, Atlanta and Austin. Waymo said earlier this month that it plans to expand to London next year.
Uber is partnering with Waymo on autonomous taxis in Austin.