Uber plans to roll out the first Lucid robotaxis next year in a major urban hub—then scale up.
New Three-Way Partnership
Please note Uber Partners with Lucid Motors, Nuro to Deploy 20,000 Robotaxis
Key Details
- The partnership—announced Thursday—will include the ride-hailing tech company investing $300 million into Lucid Motors to deploy 20,000 self-driving robotaxis over the next six years.
- The California-based robotics company, Nuro, will develop the autonomous technology used in the Lucid robotaxis.
- Uber plans to roll out the first Lucid robotaxis next year in a major urban hub—then scale up the service as demand grows.
- The global robotaxi market is projected to reach $118.61 billion by 2031 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 80.8%—with the robotaxi market in the U.S. expected to reach 3.30 billion by 2027.
The Problem and Opportunity With Lucid
The Motley Fool asks Is Lucid Group a Millionaire-Maker Stock?
Despite Lucid’s award-winning cars, its stock has plunged 96% from its peak.
The company still loses an average of more than $200,000 on each vehicle is sells.Yet with Lucid’s new Gravity SUV rolling off production lines and the company’s vehicles still earning industry accolades for superior range and performance, could this beaten-down stock stage a remarkable comeback?
Lucid makes an exceptional car
In a relatively crowded EV market, Lucid’s vehicles stand out with some of the best technology in the industry, attention to detail, and premium luxury standards. The company’s Air Grand Touring sedan is one of the most powerful EVs on the market and provides the most range of any EV currently available.
In Car and Driver’s real-world tests, the Air Grand Touring delivered 410 miles of range. That’s significantly more than Tesla’s Model S, which, despite an officially listed range of 400 miles, only delivered 320 miles in the publication’s tests.
Since its release in 2022, the Air has won the U.S. News and World Report award for best luxury EV every year.
Lucid is still operating deep in the red
Despite the clear quality of its vehicles and its technology, Lucid has struggled. Sales have been relatively meager since the Air was launched in 2022. Last year, the company delivered just 10,241 vehicles, earning just over $800 million in revenue. In the same time period, Tesla delivered nearly 1.8 million vehicles, earning $77 billion in revenue.
Perhaps even more concerning than its top line is its bottom-line profitability — or lack thereof. Lucid lost $2.7 billion last year. For every car it sells, it loses quite a bit of money.
Last quarter, the company reported $235 million in revenue from delivering 3,109 vehicles. It also reported operational costs of $927 million. That means each car lost the company $222,000, well over the average price of a new Lucid. Even if you exclude sales, marketing, and administrative costs, and research and development expenses — and consider only pure production costs — the company is still losing $73,000 on every vehicle.
The Gravity SUV is already proving to be a better seller than the company’s sedan. But the question remains: Will it be enough of an improvement?
One survey by AAA showed that American attitudes toward EVs are the worst since 2019. Only 16% of respondents said they were likely or very likely to pick an EV as their next car. That’s down from 25% from just three years ago. Over the same period, the share of respondents who said they were unlikely or very unlikely to do so grew from 51% to 63%.
Still, these issues are why the stock is trading at the level it is, and if you have a hearty appetite for risk, Lucid is a speculative play that could pay off significantly. Just be prepared for the real possibility of losing your entire investment.
The Motley Fool report was written before the announcement but I am not sure if it would have changed.
Lucid (LCID) spiked from $2.30 to $3.37 on the news but is now at $3.04. Looking back, LCID hit $57.75 in November of 2021
Uber sees something in the relationship. But whatever Lucid is doing needs to be cheaper and faster.
Lucid Uses Lidar
Lucid’s DreamDrive system utilizes sensor fusion, combining data from lidar, cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors to create a comprehensive understanding of the car’s surroundings.
Tesla does not use Lidar. Without Lidar, I do not believe Tesla has much of a chance competing with Waymo.
Competition is Good
Elon Musk has been promising Full Self Driving (FSD) for decades.
Waymo has far superior technology. Anyone who disagrees is a fool or a liar. However, Musk is correct, Waymo is losing money on these rides.
For now, Waymo’s technology is far more expensive. But will that price differential be significant 10 years from now? 5? 3?
Waymo has a proven safety record. Tesla has nothing. And we still have serious doubts about Tesla in rain, snow, dust storms etc.
Finally, competition in EVs is heating up. Without FSD that works in all conditions Tesla has nothing.
Waymo Surges to 10 Million Paid Rides, Tesla Has Zero
On June 1, I commented Waymo Surges to 10 Million Paid Rides, Tesla Has Zero
Hello Elon Musk, you are now 10 million rides behind Waymo.
Since then, Tesla has finally launched.
On June 23, Reuters reported Tesla rolls out robotaxis in Texas test
Tesla (TSLA), opens new tab deployed a small group of self-driving taxis picking up paying passengers on Sunday in Austin, Texas, with CEO Elon Musk announcing the “robotaxi launch” and social-media influencers posting videos of their first rides.
The event marked the first time Tesla cars without human drivers have carried paying riders, a business that Musk sees as crucial to the electric car maker’s financial future.
On July 15, Reuters reported Alphabet’s Waymo picks up speed as Tesla robotaxi service expands
Alphabet’s (GOOGL), opens new tab Waymo robotaxis have driven more than 100 million miles without a human behind the wheel, doubling the mileage in about six months, a top company official said, as it speeds up deployment in U.S. cities amid rising competition.
Rival Tesla (TSLA), opens new tab is expanding its self-driving taxi service after a small trial with about a dozen of its Model Y SUVs in a limited area of Austin, Texas last month.
Competition is good.
My position remains the same. I will not buy an EV until solid state batteries are the standard and high speed charging stations are ubiquitous.
Trumps war on EV’s is a significant deterrence because the buildout of charging stations has lost funding and the cost of copper will rise by 50% soon. Trump is working for the oil companies and even gets a 747 for his selling out our future.
Nations outside of the US and especially China and Europe will lead the world in EV adoption and with Solid State batteries on the near horizon, (see QS) I think there will be significant numbers of SS battery cars on the road by 2030.
Growing up, the taxi business / career was a very poor choice. It’s never changed. So, why the rush to invest hundreds of millions?
People complain about distance. 320 miles on a charge is better than i get on a tank in any of my ice vehicles.
Get a tune-up. Obviously you are way overdue. And quit lead-footing from every stoplight.
If you wait till the tank is empty before filling back up then you like to live dangerously. I must admit, before I grew a brain I would push it to the limit just to see if I could do it. Teenage cheap thrills and then I learned.
That’s a good way to cause engine problems as grit from the bottom of the fuel tank gets sucked into the engine.
Perhaps but EV chargers are much less prolific than gas stations.
Why do we hold autonomous vehicles to a significantly higher safety standard than human-driven vehicles? Humans, in general, are very good drivers EXCEPT when they are distracted. A combination of cameras, acoustics and sensors with the right training will be as good as humans – and better when you factor in the lack of distractions. Elon’s $25k robotaxi will be able to scale 100x what Waymo (or Uber) will be able to deliver at a fraction of the price for riders. He will have the production capacity to scale rapidly and is already gathering 100x the data from FSD than Waymo meaning he will have a better “training” model (AI) as well. Elon is worried about being the first to the billionth ride, not the 10Mth. And will be safer than my Uber driver today – even if not as safe as Waymo.
Tesla’s taxis will be very profitable way before Waymo’s and way earlier. It’s a numbers game.
At 41,000+ human deaths annually due to car accidents in the USA alone, let’s hope that autonomous cars are MUCH BETTER!
I sincerely hope they go bust.
The Chinese will eventually come up with something much better half the price.(or less)
Don’t count on it.
Electric rickshaws?
They already have. We could enjoy cars at half the price except Trump decided to tax us consumers out the nose with his Tariff War. Look at the link, find the pricing chart, see the proof.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2025/05/16/chinese-evs-now-almost-as-affordable-as-gasoline-cars/
Excellent news. With autonomous taxis, scumbag companies like Hertz won’t be able to scam rental car drivers, as is demonstrated in this story:
ongoing: The U.S. debt outlook is so dire it now resembles the student loan crisis
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-debt-outlook-dire-now-190559628.html
Economists said the country will be in trouble when debt interest payment surpass military budget.
Guess what Trump did?
He raised military spending over 1 trillion and is now more than debt interest payment.
Easy!
Debt, what a concept…
Lucid targets to make 20,000 cars in 2025. They are the high price premium car maker. Combined with low cost, high wear and maintenance robo-taxi market, a match made in heaven. /s
Using a car that has the price of a Lamborghini for taxis rides is certainly a winning strategy. I must commend whoever came up with this idea.
The only question is, which of the two companies is more desperate.
Which has the lowest break-even?
“Tesla does not use Lidar. Without Lidar, I do not believe Tesla has much of a chance competing with Waymo.
Competition is Good
Elon Musk has been promising Full Self Driving (FSD) for decades.
Waymo has far superior technology. Anyone who disagrees is”….. Actually Correct.
NEWS: A “vision expert” at a rival autonomous vehicle startup said “annoyingly…Elon is right” about the pros and cons of using sensor fusion (camera + Radar + LiDAR) vs. @Tesla
‘s vision only camera based approach for its robotaxi fleet, according to Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas.
Adam believes investors may be overlooking the potential benefits of Tesla’s minimalist sensor approach, intentionally leaving out LiDAR to push the fleet toward a fundamentally different and more scalable way of learning.
https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1946071480376467667
Elon doesn’t need Lidar.
He’s hiring “precogs” that will send you a text message before anything actually happens.
Lidar is not only redundant but also subject to electronic spoofing.