Uber to deploy up to 50,000 Rivian robotaxis by 2031

(Sharecast News) - Ride-hailing giant Uber has announced a $1.25bn investment in self-driving tech group Rivian to deploy up to 50,000 fully autonomous robotaxis as it works towards initial commercial deployments in two years' time.

The investment, which is subject to the achievement of autonomous performance milestones, will see Uber or its fleet partners purchase 10,000 R2 robotaxis initially, with the option to buy up to 40,000 more in 2030.

The R2 robotaxis will be available exclusively through the Uber platform, with commercial deployments expected to begin in San Francisco and Miami in 2028, expanding to 25 in the US, Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031.

The announcement comes ahead of the late-2026 launch of Rivian's third-generation autonomy platform, which the company claims will have the most powerful self-driving technology (in terms of sensors and inference compute) in a consumer vehicle across North America.

"We're big believers in Rivian's approach - designing the vehicle, compute platform, and software stack together, while maintaining end-to-end control of scaled manufacturing and supply in the US," said Uber's chief executive in a statement.

"That vertical integration, combined with data from their growing consumer vehicle base and experience managing the complexities of commercial fleets, gives us conviction to set these ambitious but achievable targets."

Uber shares were down 0.8% at $76.05 by 1415 GMT.