Almost two years after the sale of its Autonomous Vehicle Development Unit, Uber is returning to the business of robotaxi and has entered into a 10-year agreement with the autonomous vehicle manufacturer Motional, which will introduce autonomous machines on its taxi and delivery platforms.
According to available data, Autonomous Motors will transport passengers and deliver goods to Uber clients, including users of Uber Eats. Note that Motional also works with Uber's main rival, Lyft, with whom a robotaxi service was launched in Los Angeles earlier this year.
The Uber representative confirmed that potential clients of the robotaxi service would not need to register on the waiting list or sign a non-disclosure agreement to participate in the beta testing program. It is likely that the scale of the robotaxi service will depend largely on the position of local authorities, because in the different states of the United States, authorities have different approaches to regulating the autonomous transport segment, ranging from testing such vehicles to launching full-scale commercial offers.