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Uber-Rivian robotaxi announcement

jedwin

jedwin

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What do we make of this, vis a vis Lucid’s and Uber’s Gravity and midsize robotaxi plans, and Lucid’s Lunar 2-seater play? Talk of 25 cities, 40,000 R2s. Larger numbers than Uber has said out loud for Lucids….


Is Uber just spreading out its investments, hedging against either Lucid or Rivian faltering? Do they see the market expanding enough that they will want both R2s and various Lucid vehicles in their fleet?

Love triangle or polyamory???
 
jedwin said:
What do we make of this, vis a vis Lucid’s and Uber’s Gravity and midsize robotaxi plans, and Lucid’s Lunar 2-seater play? Talk of 25 cities, 40,000 R2s. Larger numbers than Uber has said out loud for Lucids….


Is Uber just spreading out its investments, hedging against either Lucid or Rivian faltering? Do they see the market expanding enough that they will want both R2s and various Lucid vehicles in their fleet?

Love triangle or polyamory???
Click to expand...
Polyamory. Uber does not care which cars its routing uses. They get paid for the service, not which car it uses.
 
jedwin said:
What do we make of this, vis a vis Lucid’s and Uber’s Gravity and midsize robotaxi plans, and Lucid’s Lunar 2-seater play? Talk of 25 cities, 40,000 R2s. Larger numbers than Uber has said out loud for Lucids….


Is Uber just spreading out its investments, hedging against either Lucid or Rivian faltering? Do they see the market expanding enough that they will want both R2s and various Lucid vehicles in their fleet?

Love triangle or polyamory???
Click to expand...
Initial investment is only 300 million, more will come on reaching autonomy goals and having production ready vehicles. This is similar to the lucid investment in Gravity. Lucid in talks with Uber to expand agreement to include more midsize vehicles. Rememebr, PIF is a big investor in Uber as well.
 
Uber is gong to partner with everyone. And win.

Even Xoox here in SF has already announced an Uber partnership.
 
borski said:
Polyamory. Uber does not care which cars its routing uses. They get paid for the service, not which car it uses.
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree with a small asterisk because things like unit cost, efficiency, and range matter. It is is not including the r1 in this probably due to combination of unit cost and bad efficiency. My speculation is the gravity was only involved because the pif applied some pressure and that Lucid’s could get it together this year. Expanding the deal around midsize and the robotaxi variants will be big if lucid can deliver on the integration with nuro and possibly their own software for the robotaxi because these are the efficiency and unit cost they are looking for. I remember one moment on the investor day video where he practically said gravity is too expensive for any additional deal no matter what. It was obviously more subtle than this, but not a lot when you are speaking to lucid ceo at their investor day event,
 
Dolphins4ever said:
Absolutely agree with a small asterisk because things like unit cost, efficiency, and range matter. It is is not including the r1 in this probably due to combination of unit cost and bad efficiency. My speculation is the gravity was only involved because the pif applied some pressure and that Lucid’s could get it together this year. Expanding the deal around midsize and the robotaxi variants will be big if lucid can deliver on the integration with nuro and possibly their own software for the robotaxi because these are the efficiency and unit cost they are looking for. I remember one moment on the investor day video where he practically said gravity is too expensive for any additional deal no matter what. It was obviously more subtle than this, but not a lot when you are speaking to lucid ceo at their investor day event,
Click to expand...
Gravity was involved because it seats 7, I think.

Midsize would be the bigger draw, I agree.
 
It's worth recognizing that no company offers a mature autonomous taxi yet, and so it's sensible for Uber to diversify its partners. At least until it becomes clear who has autonomous driving technology that actually works, and what it actually costs, both initially and in operational costs.
 
gaskiller said:
Initial investment is only 300 million, more will come on reaching autonomy goals and having production ready vehicles. This is similar to the lucid investment in Gravity. Lucid in talks with Uber to expand agreement to include more midsize vehicles. Rememebr, PIF is a big investor in Uber as well.
Click to expand...
"Only" and "$300 Million" do not go in the same sentence together. 1/3 of a BILLION dollars is ALLOT of money.

Uber would be crazy to not co-invest in every major player in the business - they have two (or more) sources of innovation and each of their partners only have one - themselves. Why do all the heavy lifting, when you can distribute the load? Uber seems to have a very specific plan and they are executing. Fun to watch! And we, the consumer, wins in the end. Ain't America Great!
 
tmichael said:
"Only" and "$300 Million" do not go in the same sentence together. 1/3 of a BILLION dollars is ALLOT of money.

Uber would be crazy to not co-invest in every major player in the business - they have two (or more) sources of innovation and each of their partners only have one - themselves. Why do all the heavy lifting, when you can distribute the load? Uber seems to have a very specific plan and they are executing. Fun to watch! And we, the consumer, wins in the end. Ain't America Great!
Click to expand...
Meaning it’s not the plus 1 billion advertised, at least not now, strings attached
 
Anyone went to bet on Tesla versus Uber? My money is on Uber with their partnerships.

Let’s see, which robotaxi to choose when your life depends on it: 1) camera only or 2) camera+lidar+radar+sonar.
 
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