Uber has signed a commercial agreement with Motional to offer autonomous rides and deliveries using Motional’s all-electric IONIQ 5-based robotaxis.
The two companies anticipate that the 10-year, multimarket agreement will create one of the largest deployments of autonomous vehicles, with the potential to reach millions of Uber riders across US cities.
This partnership is also the first in the industry to include both ride-hailing and delivery services.
Karl Iagnemma, President and CEO of Motional said:This agreement will be instrumental to the wide scale adoption of robotaxis. Motional now has unparalleled access to millions of riders and a roadmap to scale significantly over the next ten years. We're proud to partner with Uber to bring both driverless ride-hail and deliveries to life in cities throughout the US.
The autonomous operations are expected to start later this year.
Throughout the partnership, Uber says it will share targeted insights to efficiently allocate Motional’s vehicles to optimise operations, such as by reducing vehicle downtime and unnecessary miles traveled.
Noah Zych, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility and Delivery at Uber said:We're excited to leverage the power of Uber's platform to bring Motional's advanced autonomous technology to a wide range of riders at the push of a button. The scope of this partnership shows the important role that shared autonomous vehicles will play in the future of transportation, and in Uber's strategy to be the global platform to help you go anywhere and get anything.
Motional’s IONIQ 5 robotaxis are fully electric, zero tailpipe-emissions vehicles. Uber says it is aiming at becoming a zero-emissions platform in the US by 2030.
This model is also used by ride-hailing provider, Lyft to provide autonomous rides in Las Vegas.
