Uber is finalising an agreement with Lucid Motors to deploy the EV maker’s upcoming midsize platform as a robotaxi at volumes comparable to the 20,000 Gravity SUVs already under contract.
The announcement was made by Uber‘s President and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald on Thursday during Lucid’s Investor Day event.
“I think I’m now authorised to say that we’re finalising an agreement — Uber and Lucid — to do a similar deployment of the Lucid midsize platform at similar levels of volume of the Gravity robotaxi platform,” Macdonald said during a fireside chat in New York.
The disclosure marks the first time either company has confirmed that the robotaxi partnership will extend beyond the Gravity.
If the midsize deal matches the existing commitment, it would effectively double the programme to approximately 40,000 vehicles across two platforms — answering a question that has hung over the partnership since it was announced in July.
Winterhoff confirmed the development is near completion.
“We started together with the Gravity, but we all knew this is more for the premium sector, and we need to go one step down,” he said. “We are totally excited about the status, which is almost — almost done.”
Why Lucid
Macdonald offered the most detailed public explanation to date of why Uber selected Lucid over other manufacturers.
He cited three factors: the Gravity’s readiness for autonomous fleet operations, Lucid’s technology-first DNA, and shared strategic alignment.
“The Gravity platform has the necessary redundancy built into the core components, the efficiency, which is really important when you think about how autonomy is going to commercialise,” Macdonald said.
“These vehicles need to be ready for long-range fleets. You need ultimate durability, ultimate efficiency and the ability for long range. And, you know, 20-plus hours a day of driving — and the Gravity platform’s ready.”
He contrasted Lucid with the broader automotive industry.
“You’ve been a tech-forward OEM from your inception. A lot of the automotive industry is trying to adapt — trying to become tech-first, become software-first, become electric-first. But you guys started there.”
Macdonald described the Lucid-Uber-Nuro partnership as deeper than the company’s other autonomous collaborations.
“The depth of collaboration goes deeper than in many cases what are commercial agreements with other players,” he said. “Our teams are together daily working on how’s the exterior of this vehicle going to look, what does the interior experience look like, how do we optimise that for ride-share passengers.”
From Premium to Mass Market
Macdonald framed the midsize expansion as essential to Uber’s plan to scale autonomous rides beyond early adopters.
“Today, Lucid offers a premium experience, and that’s really important for the early adopters of autonomy,” he said.
“I think over time, though, we want to go mass market. And to do that, you need to bring the prices down — both of the individual consumer rides, but also the underlying vehicle platform, the compute and operational cost, the sensor kit,” Uber’s COO added.
He described ride-sharing as a “supply-led business” and said the same dynamic will apply to autonomous fleets.
“If we put more cars on the road, we could fill those cars with customers. And I think the development here is going to be the same. We want to get to scale. That means we need volume.”
Macdonald also shared data from Uber’s existing autonomous deployments in Austin, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Dallas, saying autonomous rides are not cannibalising human-driven trips but expanding the overall market.
“What we’re seeing is not only our existing ride-sharing customers choosing autonomy when given the option, it’s actually growing the market in cities that we’re operating in.”
