Overview
- Uber has committed an initial $300 million at signing, subject to regulatory clearance, with the rest of the up-to-$1.25 billion tied to Rivian meeting specified performance targets through 2031.
- The first Rivian R2 robotaxis are slated to operate in San Francisco and Miami in 2028, with exclusive availability on Uber’s platform and a planned scale-up to roughly 25 cities by 2031 across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
- Uber or its fleet partners will purchase 10,000 vehicles in the first phase, with an option to buy up to 40,000 additional R2 robotaxis beginning in 2030 if milestones are achieved.
- Rivian’s R2 autonomy platform combines 11 cameras, five radars, one LiDAR, and two in‑house RAP1 chips rated at about 1,600 TOPS, though fully driverless operations at scale have not yet been demonstrated publicly.
- Rivian shares jumped in early trading after the announcement, as Uber continues a multi-partner robotaxi strategy that includes collaborations with Waymo, Lucid/Nuro, Zoox, Volkswagen, and Nvidia.