Uber Investing $1.25 Billion by 2031 in Rivian for 10,000 R2 Robotaxis

by Michael Strong

Published: March 19th, 2026

uber investing 1 25 billion by 2031 in rivian for 10 000 r2 robotaxis

Rivian not only knows how to build sought-after electric vehicles (EV), but it’s very good at attracting investors. The latest being Uber which plans to invest $1.25 billion over the next five years to purchase 10,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis.

The plan calls for Uber to invest $300 million right away with the remainder coming pending regulatory approvals. The first R2-based robotaxis will begin testing in San Francisco and Miami in 2028, according to the company.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership with Uber — it will help accelerate our path to level 4 autonomy to create one of the safest and most convenient autonomous platforms in the world,” said RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, in a release.

The self-driving cabs will use Rivian’s third-generation autonomous technology, which is expected to be ready by the end of this year. Automakers don’t all share the same mindset when it comes to the technology needed for safe, self-driving vehicles.

Rivian’s newest platform features a multi-modal sensor suite including 11 cameras (65 megapixels), five radars and one lidar. The consumer platform is driven by two of Rivian’s in-house RAP1 chips, capable of 1,600 TOPS (trillions of operations per second).

This platform pairs advanced connectivity and onboard intelligent data collection, along with data from all onboard sensors to power Rivian’s data flywheel with real world data from the customer fleet, including the critical 3D LiDAR point clouds essential to the rapid progression of advanced end-to-end Physical AI, the company says.

“The scale of Rivian's growing data flywheel coupled with RAP1, our state-of-the-art in-house inference platform, and our multi-modal perception platform make us incredibly excited for the rapid advancement of Rivian autonomy over the next couple of years,” Scaringe said.

If the test vehicle hit all their milestones, the companies will have deployed thousands of unsupervised Rivian R2 robotaxis across 25 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031. The companies also have the option to negotiate the purchase of up to 40,000 more autonomous Rivian R2 vehicles beginning in 2030.

Uber is just one of several investors in Rivian, the largest of which being Volkswagen. The German automaker is expected to plow as much as $5 billion into Rivian to gain access to its battery and other EV-related technologies, which are largely expected to help bring its new Scout brand to life.

Rivian’s other large investor is Amazon, which has a $1.3 billion deal with the automaker to develop and build all-electric delivery vans and related tech. Thousands of these purpose-built vehicles are in use across the country right now.

#RivianandUber #Rivianrobotaxis #Uber #Robotaxis #RivianAutonomy #rivianr2

Michael Strong

Michael Strong has spent more than 25 years writing about the automotive industry. A Detroit-area native, he’s written about everything from local car shows to product reviews to financial news. Currently he writes and edits for a variety of national and local publications. He’s also a longtime member of the Automotive Press Association and the International Motor Press Association, and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Hail Southern! Despite a love for ’70s land yachts and BMWs from the late ’80s and early ’90s, his personal vehicle is neither of those.

More by Michael Strong

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 20 comments

SCE to AUX on Mar 19, 2026

"The plan calls for Uber to invest $300 million right away with the remainder coming pending regulatory approvals."

Without regulatory approval, Uber is prevented from wasting $925 million more.

I like Rivian and the R2, but this is a fool's venture with a long timeline.

Like Reply
Stellantis Guy on Mar 19, 2026

I was looking at robotic mowers yesterday and some of them have LiDAR.
The Amazon Rivian EDV stopped by today and once again did not burst into flames. (I am starting to think some TTACers have questionable ideas about vehicles...)

1 Reply

Recent Comments

Amwhalbi My 1972 Mercury Capri was my first stick shift car. God, I miss that thing. It was a blast to drive.
Vid169489471 The technology exists today to produce a variable color temperature (kelvin) LED lamp. It can vary from 2700k that soft orange look to 6500k the bright daylight with the bluish tint.Since everything in a late model car is computer controlled, it would be an easy task to write a few lines of code that enables your vehicle to not only dim down from hi to low beam but to shift color temp down to the 2700k range for oncoming traffic, then back up to 5000k once oncoming traffic has passed. For the operator it would be automatic and seamless. For older cars they could be retrofitted with LEDs that are 2700k on low beam and 5000k on hi beam. As far as standards, there could be a lumens max, and a minimum. Several States already have minimum lumen standards going back to the old incandescent bulbs. Why not update these to national standards.
Jam169859557 More regulation is needed for ALL vehicle lighting systems. [list=1][*]The lighting that is most blinding are the rapidly flashing red, blue and amber lights on emergency vehicles. The lights themselves are blinding, flashing so rapidly that it's impossible for even the sharpest eyes to adjust. What's worse, is the nature of the emergency requires a careful view of the area surrounding the emergency vehicle. There is something going on that needs to be seen. More flashing lights is not the solution.[/*][*]Brighter headlights need to be regulated. The tall riding vehicles do not need headlights positioned so high that they blind drivers in lower riding vehicles. And those heasdlights need to be aimed properly. When I first started driving my 2020 Subaru Outback, many drivers would flash their lights, hoping I would dim my lights. This stopped after I performed am easy adjustment that tilted the beam lower. Late model Subaru headlamps are designed with a sharp cutoff that project less glare above the hood line. When the headlights are properly aimed, other drivers are not blinded by the beam.[/*][*]Customized light assemblies make it more difficult to see the marker lights (tail lamps, turn signals and side marker lamps) that have been tinted. There are many municiple codes that prohibit this tinting, but these laws are seldom enforced.[/*][/list=1]Solutions: Tight controls on emergency vehicle lighting. In trying to make these vehicles more visible, a dangerous side effect is reducing the ability of drivers to see the surrounding perils.Headlight design regulations that reduce the height of the headlight assemblies. Just because a pickup truck has a hood that sits 4 feet abouve the pavement, it does not mean the headlights need to be so high. Owneres should maintain proper adjustments to their vehicle headlights.Establish and enforce regulation requiring a illumination standard be followed.
Stl170698708 as someone who hates big government, and their interference;but you can add me to the list of people that are blinded by the lights.unfortunately "the poop is out of the horse and no way is it going back in"They have had 5 years to make lights bigger, badder and brighter because in the vehicle work it is go big or go home!Trucks are the worst because so many people use them to express their dominance and that is big, big, big $$ both at the Original Purchase and in the Aftermarket world.If, we are so lucky to get some good government regulation on this it will also take some very good Court enforcement to get the aftermarket people with fines and lawsuits.Much like the EPA did with the Diesel Tuner Industry that felt emission regulations didn't apply to them.This is from someone that owns said pickup truck with the same bright headlights,but i only use the truck when I have too and always turn off the Fog lights when driving in traffic.
Art65765977 I saw a porsche 911 with the most amazing headlights from behind approaching the Sunshine skyway in Florida. The pattern was 108 degrees across sweeping the road like a broom. My brother and I were amazed. I don't know what it looked like from the front but i am sure it was better than American cars