Uber and Nuro Start Employee Testing of Lucid-Based Autonomous Robotaxi Service in San Francisco

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:49:00 +0200

Uber and autonomous vehicle company Nuro have begun early testing of a premium robotaxi service in San Francisco, marking a significant step toward a planned public rollout later in 2026. The current phase is limited to select Uber employees, who can request rides through the Uber app in specially equipped Lucid Gravity SUVs. These vehicles are outfitted with Nuro’s self-driving system and include advanced hardware such as high-resolution cameras, solid-state lidar, radar sensors, and Nvidia Drive AGX Thor computing platforms to enable autonomous driving capabilities.

Although the vehicles operate in autonomous mode, a human safety operator remains behind the wheel to intervene if necessary, underscoring that the program is still in the testing stage rather than a fully driverless deployment. According to Nuro, these controlled employee rides are essential for evaluating how the autonomous system performs in real-world conditions, including navigation, passenger comfort, and particula