Lucid Aims To Knock Tesla’s Robotaxi Off Its Perch

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Despite all the hype over the Tesla Robotaxi (aka the Cybercab), competition keeps coming out of the woodwork. Among the latest stakeholders to grab for a slice of the self driving fleet of the future is Lucid Group, the Saudi-US EV startup. Somewhat ironically, part of the plan includes a partnership that hooks Lucid up with an affiliate of Hertz, the same company that once inked an ambitious deal with Tesla only to get burned, bigly.

Here Comes The Lucid Robotaxi

CleanTechnica spotted Lucid’s robotaxi intentions back in July of 2025, when the company hooked up with Uber and the robotics specialist Nuro to introduce Lucid EVs with Level 4 self-driving capability in a US city sometime in 2026. Further plans were also in the works to introduce a fleet of 20,000 driverless Lucid taxis in major markets throughout the US.

Not letting the grass grow under its feet, Nuro began testing an initial tranche of vehicles at its test track in Las Vegas last September, followed by supervised drives in the San Francisco Bay Area and unsupervised drives by year’s end.

The January 2026 Consumer Electronics Show gave the threesome an opportunity to show off their self-driving technology in detail, highlighted by a next-generation, 360-degree sensor array including cameras, lidar, and radar, alongside space for up to six passengers and luggage, too.

What’s Hertz Doing Here?

The plan has grown since last fall to encompass a minimum of 35,000 Lucid vehicles earmarked for Uber, which has invested a total of $500 million in Lucid so far. The Saudi investment firm Ayar Third Investment (an affiliate of the kindom’s PIF sovereign wealth fund) also chipped in another $550 million.

On April 30, Hertz waltzed in through its Oro Mobility driver and robotaxi fleet management affiliate. Hertz and Uber laid out the plan in a joint press release, in which they described the rollout of programs featuring Oro’s driver-led system, to be followed later this year by a launch of the startup’s robotaxi branch in San Francisco.

“Through its partnerships with Uber, Oro will deliver scalable operational and maintenance services across both autonomous and driver‑led operations in key U.S. markets, reflecting the breadth of the companies’ collaboration across multiple mobility models,” Hertz and Uber explain.

“Oro will support Uber’s autonomous robotaxi program of Lucid vehicles equipped with Nuro AV technology, providing day-to-day vehicle asset management, including charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and depot staffing,” the two partners elaborated.

Next Steps For Lucid

Lucid initially launched in 2007 and the going has been tough, to say the least. Despite its head start on other EV stakeholders, Lucid has barely carved out a niche in the US market.

Still, Lucid did manage to increase its sales after the federal EV tax credit expired prematurely last September 30, a feat few automakers were able to replicate. As noted by CleanTechnica editor Zachary Shahan in January, the Lucid Gravity SUV enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 912 units between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, after the tax cred expired.

The Gravity total for Q4 2025 was still minuscule at 1,142 vehicles. Still, an increase is better than a decrease. The Lucid Air sedan also saw its year-on-year sales increase, racking up 625 additional vehicles to reach 3,188 units in Q4 2025.

In a Q2 2026 recap earlier this week, Lucid noted a similar trend. The company produced 24% more vehicles in Q2 this year compared to last year, to reach the 4,774 vehicle mark. Lucid also delivered 3,953 vehicles in Q2 2026, up 19% compared to Q2 2025.

Lucid also observed that it could have produced more EVs in Q2, but chose not to. “The company has deliberately reduced production to better align output with anticipated demand, convert inventory into deliveries and cash, and improve working capital,” Lucid elaborated.

Make of that what you will, but Lucid claims that the drawback, along with layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, enables it to focus more resources on three priority areas including its Saudi factory and the “Midsize” Cosmos crossover EV. Robotaxis are the third priority, and Lucid has assigned the program to its newly formed Lucid Technologies arm focusing on AI and driver assistance among other elements of the digital world.

Elon, Elon, Elon

As of August 4, Lucid had a fleet of almost 100 vehicles in motion around the Bay Area and Houston in the test phase of its robotaxi program. The EV maker has also begun delivering Lucid Gravity SUVs to Nuro for production validation.

Lucid will have a tough time catching up to robotaxi frontrunner Waymo. Amazon’s Zoox venture has also been jockeying into position, having just earned the first-ever commercial exemption for a purpose-built robotaxi, enabling the startup to charge for rides in its control-free pods.

All else being equal, the Tesla Robotaxi is the low hanging fruit, if only because Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised much and delivered less multiple times over the years. The pattern continued on up to the delivery of Tesla’s Q2 report last week, which raised more questions over the Cybercab than it answered.

Then there’s the brand reputation issue, or perhaps not. Musk’s bare-naked white supremacist race-baiting and his relationship with Trump brand may have cost Tesla some customers, and yet Tesla remains the #1 selling EV brand in the US by a wide margin.

Still, Musk’s right wing politics are just one mine in a brand reputation minefield. His leadership of Trump’s DOGE cost-cutting office last year, for example, resulted in more costs, not less, while weakening vital services here in the US and placing the lives of millions of vulnerable people overseas at further risk.

In more recent news, over the summer Tesla finally settled three longstanding legal cases alleging a pattern of racial slurs and other bias at its Fremont, California factory. Confidential as they are, the settlements breathe new life into similar lawsuits brought by hundreds of other current and former Tesla employees.

Then there’s the issue of pollution from gas turbines installed at Musk’s “Colossus” data centers in Tennessee as part of his SpaceXAI business. In addition to facing a lawsuit over emissions from the un-permitted turbines, SpaceXAI is still allegedly on the hook for $136 million to a contractor who helped build the two data centers. The contractor, the Ohio firm Darana Hybrid, has filed liens against SpaceXAI for failure to pay.

Rounding out the news cycle is word that Musk plans to leverage his wealth for a “massive push” to influence the outcome of the 2026 midterms in favor of Republican candidates, with a particular focus on a key US Senate race in Maine. The news was met with delight by Democratic candidate Troy Jackson, who used the opportunity to draw attention to Musk’s tight relationship with Trump, whose public approval numbers have been circling the drain for months.

Even the long-awaited Tesla Semi Class 8 heavy-duty truck has been jinxed. Finally rolling into volume production after years of delay, the truck has generally met with positive reviews. However, the glow was diminished in July, when a Semi rear-ended a car stopped at an intersection. The Semi driver escaped injury but the two occupants of the car died. The incident is under investigation.

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Photo: The EV startup Lucid aims to beat Tesla on its own turf, with a new cost-cutting plan designed to focus more resources on its Robotaxi partnership with Uber, Nuro, and the Hertz affiliate Oro (cropped, courtesy of Lucid Group).