July 17 - Lucid Group (LCID) shares surged more than 40% in Thursday's morning session after the company secured a major partnership with Uber (UBER, Financial) to develop a high-end robotaxi fleet.
Under the agreement, Uber will inject $300 million into Lucid and commit an additional “multi-hundred-million dollar” investment into autonomous driving startup Nuro. The trio will collaborate on a global robotaxi program built around Nuro's self-driving technology.
Uber plans to deploy at least 20,000 Lucid vehicles equipped with the Nuro Driver system over the next six years. These robotaxis will be operated either directly by Uber or through its affiliated fleet partners, and will only be accessible via the Uber platform.
The project marks an aggressive move to challenge established players in autonomous mobility like Tesla (TSLA, Financial) and Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet's Google (GOOGL, Financial).
“Autonomous vehicles have enormous potential to transform our cities,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in the release. He noted the collaboration is intended to make autonomous driving safer and more accessible to users worldwide.
The partnership positions Lucid and Uber as serious contenders in the evolving robotaxi race, with initial deployment expected to begin in key global markets
