Uber bets on Rivian robotaxis in a $1.25 billion push to autonomous fleets

Uber will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian and order up to 50,000 autonomous Rivian vehicles, starting with 10,000 robotaxi versions of the R2. An initial $300 million is committed now, rising to $1.25 billion by 2031 if milestones are met. The vehicles will begin unsupervised service in San Francisco and Miami by 2028, expanding to 25 cities in the US, Canada and Europe by 2031. Uber, shifting away from in-house self-driving tech, positions itself as a fleet intermediary to manage robotaxi platforms amid intense competition from Zoox, Waymo, Baidu, and Tesla.