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Uber Technologies Inc. is setting a goal to eventually have a fleet of 100,000 autonomous vehicles powered by Nvidia Corp. technology, an ambitious move that could help bring down the cost of offering hailable robotaxis to consumers.
The companies expect the expansion to start in 2027, Nvidia said in a statement Tuesday. The announcement builds on an earlier partnership the two companies struck in January, with Uber agreeing to offer some of its driving data to help improve Nvidia’s artificial intelligence models and chip technology that carmakers can use to develop autonomous vehicles.
On Tuesday, as part of its GTC conference held in Washington, DC, Nvidia unveiled a new technology platform—Nvidia Drive AGX Hyperion 10 — that lets manufacturers equip their cars with hardware and sensors that can work with compatible autonomous-driving software.
As part of the collaboration, Stellantis NV will be among the first automakers to deliver at least 5,000 Nvidia-powered robotaxis for Uber’s operations in the US and internationally, Uber said in a separate statement. The ride-hailing giant will oversee end-to-end fleet operations for those vehicles, including remote assistance, charging, cleaning, maintenance and customer support, it said.
Stellantis will work with Foxconn on hardware and systems integration, the carmaker said in a separate statement. Start of production is targeted for 2028, with initial operations with Uber to start in the US. Pilot programmes and testing are expected to ramp up over the coming years, it said.
Uber currently offers autonomous rides in Austin and Atlanta with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, as well as with China’s WeRide Inc. in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. But the size of the fleet is limited: Uber has said it expects to expand its fleet with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta to “hundreds” over time. That’s still small compared with Uber’s human gig workforce, which includes millions of rideshare drivers and couriers.
That makes it difficult for Uber to eke out profit margins and realise gains from operating robotaxi vehicles, a process that Uber currently outsources to fleet operators for daily charging, cleaning and maintenance.
Uber is also working with Nvidia to build a “robotaxi data factory” for autonomous-vehicle development. Uber will collect more than three million hours of robotaxi-specific driving data to fuel driverless model training and validation, the rideshare company said in the statement. Nvidia will provide the processors, AI models and associated tools for data curation, search and simulation as part of the collaboration.
“Together, these capabilities form a powerful data engine — spanning ingestion, labelling, scenario mining, synthetic data generation and large-scale training — that aims to shorten the path from pilot to profitable autonomy deployment,” Uber said in the statement.
Read Also: Brazilian police raid on drug gang in Rio de Janeiro leaves at least 60 criminal suspects dead
The companies expect the expansion to start in 2027, Nvidia said in a statement Tuesday. The announcement builds on an earlier partnership the two companies struck in January, with Uber agreeing to offer some of its driving data to help improve Nvidia’s artificial intelligence models and chip technology that carmakers can use to develop autonomous vehicles.
On Tuesday, as part of its GTC conference held in Washington, DC, Nvidia unveiled a new technology platform—Nvidia Drive AGX Hyperion 10 — that lets manufacturers equip their cars with hardware and sensors that can work with compatible autonomous-driving software.
As part of the collaboration, Stellantis NV will be among the first automakers to deliver at least 5,000 Nvidia-powered robotaxis for Uber’s operations in the US and internationally, Uber said in a separate statement. The ride-hailing giant will oversee end-to-end fleet operations for those vehicles, including remote assistance, charging, cleaning, maintenance and customer support, it said.
Stellantis will work with Foxconn on hardware and systems integration, the carmaker said in a separate statement. Start of production is targeted for 2028, with initial operations with Uber to start in the US. Pilot programmes and testing are expected to ramp up over the coming years, it said.
Uber currently offers autonomous rides in Austin and Atlanta with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, as well as with China’s WeRide Inc. in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. But the size of the fleet is limited: Uber has said it expects to expand its fleet with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta to “hundreds” over time. That’s still small compared with Uber’s human gig workforce, which includes millions of rideshare drivers and couriers.
That makes it difficult for Uber to eke out profit margins and realise gains from operating robotaxi vehicles, a process that Uber currently outsources to fleet operators for daily charging, cleaning and maintenance.
Uber is also working with Nvidia to build a “robotaxi data factory” for autonomous-vehicle development. Uber will collect more than three million hours of robotaxi-specific driving data to fuel driverless model training and validation, the rideshare company said in the statement. Nvidia will provide the processors, AI models and associated tools for data curation, search and simulation as part of the collaboration.
“Together, these capabilities form a powerful data engine — spanning ingestion, labelling, scenario mining, synthetic data generation and large-scale training — that aims to shorten the path from pilot to profitable autonomy deployment,” Uber said in the statement.
Read Also: Brazilian police raid on drug gang in Rio de Janeiro leaves at least 60 criminal suspects dead
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