March 16 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies and Nvidia announced on Monday that they will deploy a fleet of robotaxis powered by Nvidia's autonomous driving software on Uber's ride-hailing network. The rollout will start in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2027 and expand to 28 cities globally by 2028.
Robotaxis are rapidly expanding into more cities as companies compete to commercialize autonomous ride-hailing services. Alphabet's Waymo remains the early leader in this space, while Tesla's extensive manufacturing scale and financial resources have the potential to reshape the competitive landscape.
Competition has intensified as companies scale up driverless fleets. Alphabet's Waymo currently operates the most advanced commercial robotaxi service, offering fully driverless rides in cities including Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, while steadily expanding its fleet.
Tesla is pursuing a camera-based approach to autonomy and has announced plans to launch its own robotaxi service, leveraging its large vehicle manufacturing capacity.
Uber and Nvidia stated that their vehicles will operate on the DRIVE Hyperion autonomous vehicle platform, combined with Alpamayo, a reasoning-based AI model designed to manage complex road scenarios.
The rollout will begin with data-collection vehicles to train the system on city-specific driving conditions. This will be followed by operator-supervised launches and eventually fully driverless Level 4 operations.
The companies plan to expand the service across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia as part of a broader effort to bring autonomous ride-hailing to the market.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the partnership aims to support a "multi-player" autonomous vehicle ecosystem on Uber's platform, as more developers and automakers introduce robotaxi services.
This collaboration with Nvidia complements Uber's strategy of forming partnerships across the autonomous vehicle industry rather than developing its own technology.
Previously, Uber partnered with electric vehicle maker Lucid Group and autonomous driving startup Nuro to deploy robotaxis built on Lucid vehicles and powered by Nuro's self-driving software on the Uber network.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
