Uber is pitching self-driving car manufacturers. we understand this.
The ride-hailing and food delivery company has launched a new division called Uber Autonomous Solutions, aimed at taking on all the tasks associated with operating a robotaxi, self-driving truck, and sidewalk delivery robot business, including software and support services.
The initiative announced Monday formalizes an effort that Uber has been working on rather quietly over the past few years.
Uber has amassed partnerships with nearly 20 self-driving technology companies across use cases ranging from robotaxis and trucking to sidewalk delivery robots and drones. Uber is backing many of these companies (Lucid and Nuro, Waabi, and China’s WeRide), invested $100 million to build fast-charging self-driving car charging stations, and also launched Uber AV Labs, a dedicated engineering team that collects data for robotaxi partners.
Uber partners and invests. Now it wants to make itself essential.
“AV technology teams can now focus on what they do best: building software that safely powers an autonomous world,” said Sarfraz Maredia, Uber’s global head of self-driving mobility and delivery, who is leading the effort. The idea, he said, is to add “operational depth where it’s needed,” such as managing demand generation, passenger experience, customer support and day-to-day fleet operations.
The ultimate goal is to help these companies reduce cost per mile and speed time to market. Uber said it plans to help these partners expand robotaxi deployments to more than 15 cities by the end of this year.
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“The success or failure of self-driving in the world will be determined by whether it can be commercialized, and Uber will be the one that makes self-driving commercially viable,” said Andrew MacDonald, Uber’s president and chief operating officer.
For Uber, this means handling infrastructure such as training data and mapping, vehicle financing, regulatory services, and managing how robotaxis and other AVs navigate complex events and venues. The company said it uses a fleet of specially equipped Lucid vehicles to collect data that can be shared with partners to help train their AI systems.
The new division will also work on user experience, including customer support. What’s notable is that Uber wants to take over fleet management, including remote assistance. The issue has recently received attention from federal lawmakers over concerns about Waymo hiring workers overseas. Fleet managers also cover insurance and the employment of humans who may be needed to support these AVs once they go out into the world.
Uber’s move is both existential and opportunistic. The company sold its in-house AV development division, known as Uber ATG, in 2020 after two years of internal battles and pressure after one of its test vehicles killed a pedestrian. (Uber sold the division in a complicated deal with Aurora.)
The company has sought to strengthen its position through partnerships and investments. And there were many. Uber and Waymo offer shared robotaxi services in Atlanta and Austin. The company also has partnerships with Chinese companies Baidu, Momenta, and Pony.ai, sidewalk delivery bot companies Cartken, Starship, and Serve, UK-based self-driving technology startup Wayve, and robotaxi developers AVride and Motional, to name a few. In collaboration with Volkswagen, there are plans to launch a robotaxi service in Los Angeles by the end of 2026, but it won’t be driverless until 2027.
While these offer some protection to Uber, they don’t replace the revenue that would be lost if these companies eroded their ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses, which are currently run by human drivers. Uber hopes this new division will do just that.
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