Uber will challenge Waymo’s robotaxi dominance in San Francisco

The companies have already begun on-road testing after the delivery of their first vehicle, a Lucid Gravity SUV modified with Nuro’s self-driving software. But they will still need to obtain the driverless operational permits from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, as well as a ridehailing permits from the California Public Utilities Commission, before they are allowed to accept paying passengers in their vehicles. The companies say they have updated policymakers and regulators “at every level” on their progress.

Earlier this year, Lucid, Uber, and Nuro announced a massive robotaxi deal that would see the deployment of 20,000 autonomous vehicles in the US over the next six years. The fleet will be owned by Uber or a third-party fleet management partner.

“The Bay Area has long been the birthplace of transformative technology, and it’s only fitting that Uber’s next-generation robotaxi program with Lucid and Nuro will begin here – launching to the public next year,” said Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer, in a statement.

Lucid recently delivered the first engineering prototypes to Nuro, several of which have already been retrofitted with all the tech needed for driverless operations, the companies say. They plan on having “over 100 robotaxis” as part of their engineering fleet in the coming months. Nuro will take the lead on testing and validation, including simulation, closed-course testing, and on-road tests with human safety drivers behind the wheel.

In some sense, this is Uber snatching back some of the market share it lost to Waymo since the Alphabet-owned company ditched the waitlist and opened up its robotaxis to the broader public in 2024. An analysis of credit card data found that Waymo’s market share was essentially equal with Lyft’s in San Francisco in December 2024, but only for trips that started and ended in Waymo’s operating domain.

Of course, Uber and Waymo are also collaborating in Austin and Atlanta, where Waymo’s robotaxis are available exclusively on Uber’s app. It will be interesting to see how that relationship develops — or deteriorates — as the two companies come into direct competition with each other.