Five years from now, could the rideshare vehicle that you hail on the streets of a major U.S. city be operated entirely by software? If a new arrangement between Uber and Rivian goes according to plan, that might well be the new reality on the ground. The EV manufacturer and the rideshare company announced this week a plan to collaborate on 10,000 autonomous vehicles that would be accessible via Uber’s platform.
The arrangement also leaves plenty of room for growth: initially, Uber and its partners will purchase 10,000 self-driving Rivian R2s to operate through their service. The first two cities where this new program will go into effect are Miami and San Francisco; Rivian expects to have the self-driving R2s up and running there sometime in 2028.
Uber and Rivian have the stated intent to have this partnership operational in 25 cities by 2031. In 2030, Uber will also have the option to purchase up to 40,000 additional self-driving R2s to add to their existing stock. For their part, Uber is set to invest $1.25 billion in Rivian over the course of the next five years.
“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 Rivian founder RJ Scaringe in a statement.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe Hints at the EV Company’s Future
It sounds like the automaker is keeping things focusedIn a write-up of the deal for Motor Trend, Justin Banner explored a few ways in which humans might still be involved in these rideshare operations — including handling tasks like closing doors, something that even the best navigation software won’t be able to do. Banner also noted that Uber is working with a number of other automakers, including Lucid; last week, Uber revealed that app users visiting Las Vegas will be able to book trips on one of Motional’s autonomous vehicles.
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