Autonomous driving
Competition for drivers: Uber plans 20,000 robotaxis
Uber already got robotaxis from various developers onto the platform. But now the travel service broker also wants to operate thousands of their own self-driving cars.
The driving service broker Uber wants to become a robotaxi provider-and would therefore compete with the drivers on the platform. Over the next six years, at least 20,000 self-driving cars based on SUVs from the electric car manufacturer Lucid are to be introduced in different countries. The vehicles will belong to Uber or the fleet partners of the online service.
About previously demonstrated about ambitions to become the leading platform for robotaxis from various developers. In some US cities, self-driving cars from the Google sister company Waymo can also be booked via the Uber app. Robotaxis from Volkswagen should also come to the platform. Only this week also announced that self -driving cars from the Chinese company Baidu should be conveyed outside the USA.
$ 300 million for conversion
The SUV model named Gravity is the second vehicle of the Tesla challenger Lucid, which previously sold low quantities. However, the company emphasizes that with the financing of the state investment fund of Saudi Arabia as a major shareholder, you have staying power. The cars are to be autonomous through the technology of the American robot car developer Nuro. Among other things, Lucid receives $ 300 million from Uber for capacity to install the equipment.
The driving service broker once worked on its own technology for autonomous cars. But after a fatal accident on an evening test drive, Uber threw the towel. It is the only known death in the operation of self -driving cars.
In the meantime, the Robotaxi rivalry between Waymo and Tesla is absorbed in the Texas city of Austin. The electric car manufacturer, led by Elon Musk, started his first robotaxi offer in small format a few weeks ago and with people as a watchdog in the passenger seat. Tesla announced this week an expansion of the area in which the company’s robotaxis are available. In accordance with the often juvenile humor of the Tesla boss, the area of application of the Tesla Robotaxis has a penis shape. Waymo, which many experts see far ahead in technology for autonomous driving, now expanded the area of its own offer far beyond the borders of the Tesla deployment area.
dpa
Source: Stern
