Uber backs Rivian with $US1.25bn to deploy up to 50,000 robotaxis

Uber has committed up to $US1.25 billion to EV maker Rivian in a deal that could see as many as 50,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis deployed globally.

The companies announced the deal last week as part of a push to accelerate their autonomous vehicle ambitions.

The investment, which runs through to 2031 and is tied to the achievement of key autonomy milestones, will be accompanied by an initial order of 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis. Uber, or its fleet partners, will also have the option to purchase up to 40,000 additional vehicles from 2030.

If realised, the companies aim to deploy up to 50,000 R2 robotaxis across 25 cities in the United States, Canada and Europe by the end of 2031.

“We’re big believers in Rivian’s approach – designing the vehicle, compute platform, and software stack together, while maintaining end-to-end control of scaled manufacturing and supply in the US,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.

“That vertical integration, combined with data from their growing consumer vehicle base and experience managing the complexities of commercial fleets, gives us conviction to set these ambitious but achievable targets.”

The announcement comes just over three months after Rivian revealed what it described as “significant breakthroughs” in its third-generation autonomy platform, which it says will enable Level 4 autonomous driving. The system is expected to debut in the R2 later this year.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership with Uber — it will help accelerate our path to level 4 autonomy to create one of the safest and most convenient autonomous platforms in the world,” said RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian.

“The scale of Rivian’s growing data flywheel coupled with RAP1, our state-of-the-art in-house inference platform, and our multi-modal perception platform make us incredibly excited for the rapid advancement of Rivian autonomy over the next couple of years.”

Rivian’s third generation autonomy platform consists of a multi-modal sensor suite made up of eleven 65 megapixels cameras, 5 radars, and 1 LiDAR, all feeding into Rivian’s consumer platform, which is driven by two of the company’s in-house RAP1 chips, capable of 1600 TOPS of AI compute performance.

Rivian says the platform uses data collected from its growing fleet, including detailed 3D LiDAR point clouds to power a “data flywheel” aimed at rapidly improving its autonomous driving system.

Large-scale deployment of robotaxis remains a significant challenge. Autonomous vehicle timelines have repeatedly slipped across the industry, and Level 4 systems are typically limited to specific conditions and geofenced areas.