Nvidia enters the robotaxi race with Uber partnership

Nvidia and Uber are partnering to build a fleet of 100,000 robotaxis and autonomous delivery vehicles, the chip giant said at its artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

Nvidia said the fleet will start rolling out in 2027. Both companies are also working together to develop a data factory to process the vast amounts of data needed to develop autonomous vehicles.

“Human robots are still in development, but meanwhile, there’s one robot that is clearly at an inflection point, and it is basically here, and that is a robot on wheels,” Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said.

The announcement comes as other autonomous vehicle taxis are gaining ground, including Tesla and Waymo. However, Uber and Nvidia will not be building the vehicles.

That job will fall to a handful of automotive partners, including Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, and electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors, Nvidia said

Uber will use technology based on Nvidia’s Drive AGX Hyperion 10 computers. Nvidia said this technology will make cars ready for level four automation, which means the car could drive itself autonomously within designated areas.

This is one level higher than current robotaxis, which operate at level three, meaning they have conditional automation.

As for safety, Huang said “the sensor suite, surround cameras, radars, and lidar make it possible for us to achieve the highest level of surround cocoon, sensor, perception, and redundancy necessary for the highest level of safety”.

Meanwhile, if any computer or sensor fails, “you can always get yourself to a safe stop,” Ali Kani, vice president of automotive at Nvidia, said in a press briefing.