On Thursday, March 19, 2026, Rivian announced a partnership with Uber to build robotaxis based on its upcoming R2 SUV. The project could be worth $1.25 billion for the EV manufacturer.
Uber made an initial investment of $300 million into the partnership with Rivian and is “expected to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis.” A 2028 rollout is planned for San Francisco and Miami.
In 2030, Uber will have the option to purchase an additional 40,00 R2 SUVs from Rivian. The two companies plan to launch the robotaxis in “25 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031,” and exclusively available on Uber’s network.
Risks and Challenges
Rivian expects to begin production of the R2 SUVs by June. It has not yet tested and deployed an autonomous robotaxi-designated system. Additionally, the manufacturing plant that will build the robotaxis is still under construction in Georgia.
In 2021, Rivian RJ Scaringe opted to pursue an AI-first strategy using large language models to train the system to observe and navigate the world instead of the previous rules-based framework. The system will learn from fleet data and become increasingly autonomous.
The 2024 release of the Rivian Autonomy Platform debuted with the second-generation R1 vehicles; the foundation for the plan to build capability over time for hands-free driving.
The ultimate goal of Rivian is to offer a hands-off, eyes-off driving system through a hardware upgrade that includes a lidar sensor and an “Autonomy computer” that will process five billion pixels per second. The hardware upgrade will launch in late 2026 with the R2 SUV.
These driving systems are not considered fully autonomous, in which the driver is never expected to take over control. During SXSW 2026 last week, Scaringe said, “Our path to get to hands-off, eyes-off in 2027.”
He continued, “If you were to look at the progress in autonomy in the last five years and try to use it as a rough metric or gauge to predict the next five years, you would be wildly wrong. The rate of progress is so much different than looking forward five years than looking backwards five years. The past, in this case, is not a good predictor of the future.”
Rivian has taken an 88 percent drop in share price since 2021. The company’s EV trucks and SUVs are a hit with wealthy customers in California, but it anticipates only $62,000 in sales with a loss of $2.1 billion.
Other Uber Partners
Lucid Motors is working with Nuro to build robotaxis based on Lucid’s Gravity SUV in partnership with Uber. They are expected to deploy commercially in San Francisco at the end of the year.
Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi has partnered with 25 dedicated autonomous vehicle companies around the world, including Waymo, whose robotaxis are operating in Austin and Atlanta on the Uber app. Other deals have been arranged with Baidu, Motional, and Wayve.
Uber sold its AV research division in 2020 and opted to be an intermediary for its customers, while assisting with the management and service of robotaxi fleets.
Uber partnered with Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi service, launching this summer in Las Vegas, and plans to expand to Los Angeles next year. Uber invested $300 million in Lucid and agreed to purchase 20,000 Gravity electric SUVs.
Robotaxi Competition
Tesla is working to release its own fleet of autonomous “Cybercabs.” Their technology still lacks regulatory approvals and has only launched a limited geofenced trial being supervised by safety drivers in Texas.
Sources:
TechCrunch: Uber taps Rivian to build robotaxis in deal worth up to $1.25B
MarketWatch: Rivian’s stock pops as the EV maker becomes the latest to partner with Uber
Financial Times: Uber strikes $1.25Bn deal with Rivian for robotaxi fleet
Featured Image Courtesy of Thomas Hawk’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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