- Rivian and Uber have partnered to deploy tens of thousands of R2 fully autonomous robotaxis in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
- The self-driving R2 EVs will be available exclusively through the Uber app.
- At first, 10,000 R2s will be sold to Uber and its partners, with the first robotaxis scheduled to hit the streets of San Francisco and Miami in 2028.
Rivian’s R2 mid-size SUV is the California startup’s most important car yet, and it’s already getting some serious attention from industry heavyweights. Uber, the ride-hailing giant that’s seemingly partnering with anyone, anywhere, has just struck a deal with Rivian to buy up to 50,000 R2 robotaxis over the next five years.
As part of the agreement, Uber will invest up to $1.25 billion in the American EV maker, with the first $300 million already being committed to following signing and regulatory approval. Initially, the ride-hailing company, as well as its fleet partners, is expected to buy 10,000 R2 robotaxis, with the option to purchase an additional 40,000 in 2030 if everything goes smoothly.
Photo by: Rivian
All of these Rivian driverless taxis will be available exclusively through the Uber app, with the first deployments expected to begin in San Francisco and Miami in 2028. Then, the two companies want to expand operations to 25 cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership with Uber,” said RJ Scaringe, Rivian’s founder and CEO. “It will help accelerate our path to Level 4 autonomy to create one of the safest and most convenient autonomous platforms in the world.”
Late last year, Rivian unveiled its third-generation autonomy platform, but it’s unclear if the Uber R2s will use the same setup. The hands-off system is expected to be one of the most powerful combinations of sensors and inference computing in a consumer vehicle in North America when it becomes available on the R2 SUV in late 2026. Currently, the first batch of R2s rolling off the assembly line in Normal, Illinois, doesn’t have the latest sensor suite.
Rivian’s third-gen advanced driver assistance system uses 11 65-megapixel cameras, 5 radars, and 1 lidar to create a 360-degree view of the vehicle’s surroundings without having to rely on pre-mapped data. To top it all off, a pair of Rivian’s own RAP1 chips, capable of 1,600 TOPS of compute performance, will act as the brain of the whole operation.
The California startup has struggled to make a splash with the R1S and R1T flagship EVs, mostly due to their high price tags. However, the company managed to strike high-profile deals with Amazon, the Volkswagen Group, and now with Uber, allowing it to diversify its income stream.
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