Breaking from its asset-light “gig economy” business model to avoid disruption from robotaxis, Uber has committed more than $10 billion to buying thousands of autonomous vehicles and taking stakes in their developers, according to the Financial Times on Wednesday.
Uber is positioning itself as a marketplace for multiple robotaxi operators, and has partnered across much of the autonomous vehicle industry, including with Baidu, Rivian, and Lucid, and has outlined plans to launch robotaxi services in at least 28 cities by 2028.
Interest in driverless taxis has surged in recent months after years of missed promises, with artificial intelligence and tech partnerships offering hopes of solving complex traffic scenarios faster and mitigating high costs.
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Citing their calculations based on analyst estimates and people familiar with Uber’s deals, the deals put Uber on track to invest more than $2.5 billion in equity stakes and spend over $7.5 billion on robotaxi fleets in the next few years, FT reported.
The agreements are contingent on its partners hitting certain deployment milestones.