Lucid, Nuro, Uber debut robotaxi ahead of launch this year

LAS VEGAS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - ⁠Lucid Group, Nuro ⁠and ‍Uber on Monday unveiled a production-intent robotaxi, marking a key step toward commercial deployment for the autonomous vehicle partnership.

The unveiling at ‍the CES technology conference in Las Vegas places the trio ​among a growing group of companies pursuing large-scale robotaxi deployment in the U.S., alongside Alphabet's ​Waymo and Elon Musk's Tesla among others.

The companies said on-road testing began in December, led by Nuro using engineering prototypes supervised by safety operators, a move toward a planned ​robotaxi launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year.

The testing program combines real-world driving, closed-course testing and simulation to validate safety ​before commercial deployment. Production of the robotaxi is expected to begin later this year at Lucid's Arizona ‌factory, pending final validation.

Uber, which sold its self-driving unit to Aurora Innovation in 2020, has since repositioned itself as a ​platform partner for a slew of developers ⁠of self-driving technology. It has signed multiple deals to bring robotaxis onto its app rather than owning the technology ‌outright.

For Lucid, the project represents a bid to diversify beyond consumer electric vehicles, as the luxury EV maker grapples with slowing demand in the U.S. EV market, ‌heavy cash burn and intensifying competition. The company earlier in the day reported 2025 deliveries ‌slightly above estimates, with production far outpacing sales.

The vehicle is based on Lucid's Gravity electric SUV and features a roof-mounted sensor "halo" integrating cameras, lidar and radar to provide ‍360-degree perception. Uber designed the in-cabin experience, which includes interactive screens allowing riders to control climate, seating and entertainment, ⁠and contact support if needed.

The robotaxi uses Nuro's Level 4 autonomous system, capable of operating without human intervention under defined conditions, and runs on Nvidia's DRIVE AGX Thor computing platform.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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