Under the deal announced Thursday, Uber will invest $300 million in Lucid and separately buy 'at least' 20,000 of the EV maker's new Gravity SUV over the next six years. Those EVs will be equipped with Nuro's autonomous vehicle system, and the vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber or its third-party fleet partners. Uber plans to launch a robotaxi service in a major U.S. city next year. 'I think that's probably a reflection of how meaty it is,' he said, adding that Uber was looking to make a very large commitment to a robotaxi program, and spent time with almost every AV company to find the most suitable partner. Ferguson said engineers at Lucid and Nuro have already made progress on the project. The companies have been testing a prototype driverless vehicle on a closed track at Nuro's proving grounds in Las Vegas. Lucid's Gravity SUVs are ideal because the vehicles are already equipped with the kind of hardware redundancies required for a Level 3 automated driving system,...
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