Uber plans first Lucid robotaxi fleet in Los Angeles and San Francisco this year, CEO says

Uber said it plans to operate its first fleet of Lucid robotaxis in Los Angeles and San Francisco this year, a move that indicates continued momentum in the company’s self-driving strategy but also highlights how execution details remain limited to date.

In remarks reported by Yahoo Finance, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described the plan as part of Uber’s push to bring robotaxi service to riders through commercially deployed autonomous-driving partners rather than relying solely on an internal program.

The announcement points to Lucid as the robotaxi vehicle provider for Uber’s first deployment, according to the reported account. Lucid has built electric vehicles, and the pairing here suggests Uber is integrating autonomous capability with an established EV platform for this initial service footprint.

Uber also reiterated that its robotics effort is built around partnerships, including work with Waymo, Motional, and Avride. Rather than framing robotaxi service as a single-technology rollout, the approach reflects a hub-and-network model in which different operators and technical systems can feed capabilities into Uber’s marketplace.

Robotaxis in general represent a critical test for consumer adoption because riders care less about the technology stack and more about reliability, safety, and convenience at street level. For Uber, deploying in Los Angeles and San Francisco matters because the cities have dense mobility demand and long-running interest in autonomous driving pilots.

At the same time, the company did not, in the reported description, specify operational scope such as fleet size, the number of vehicles in the Lucid batch, or whether service will be fully driverless for all trips. Those missing details are especially important for understanding how quickly the service could scale beyond early city launches.

It also was not disclosed in the reported account how the company plans to coordinate routing, customer experience, pricing, or regulatory compliance across multiple autonomous partners. Given that Waymo, Motional, and Avride are separate efforts, questions around integration and consistency for riders remain unanswered from the information provided.

What to watch next is whether Uber expands beyond the initial Los Angeles and San Francisco deployment, publishes clearer milestones for vehicle counts and service coverage, and provides more specifics on safety procedures and regulatory approvals. That information will determine whether this “first fleet” is positioned as a limited pilot or the start of a broader rollout.