Uber Technologies saw its shares rise 2% in premarket trading on Tuesday after announcing a strategic partnership with Nvidia to deploy a fleet of robotaxis using Nvidia’s autonomous driving software. The companies said initial launches are planned for Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2027, with a broader expansion to 28 cities globally by 2028.
Under the agreement, the vehicles will operate on Nvidia’s DRIVE Hyperion platform and employ Alpamayo, a reasoning-based AI model intended to handle complex driving scenarios. The partners described a staged rollout: teams will first use data-collection vehicles to capture city-specific conditions, then transition to operator-supervised deployments, and ultimately aim for fully driverless Level 4 service.
Uber characterized the tie-up as one element of a wider approach to create a "multi-player" autonomous ecosystem on its platform. The company said it wants to enable multiple developers and automakers to provide robotaxi services through Uber rather than depend solely on technology developed in-house.
The announcement adds to mounting competition as firms race to commercialize driverless ride-hailing. Alphabet's Waymo was cited as the most advanced operator, already offering fully driverless rides in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Tesla continues to pursue a camera-based route to autonomy while aiming to launch its own robotaxi service and leveraging large-scale manufacturing capacity.
Uber has also formed recent partnerships to broaden its autonomous options. The company has agreements with Lucid Group and autonomous driving startup Nuro to deploy robotaxis for its platform, pairing Lucid vehicles with Nuro's self-driving technology. Lucid said it plans to begin commercializing a robotaxi based on its Gravity SUV this year as part of that collaboration.
While the development of autonomous systems carries significant costs, companies involved in the space view robotaxis as a potential source of high-margin revenue if those services can be scaled successfully.
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