Uber and Avride launch robotaxi service in Dallas

Summary

Uber customers in Dallas may get an Avride-branded robotaxi the next time they hail a ride. A year after announcing their partnership, Uber and Avride have launched a commercial robotaxi service in Dallas. The service comes with a few caveats, however, including the addition of a human safety operator behind the wheel, and a limited operating area. The companies said fully driverless operations, without a safety operator, will begin in the future and the service area will expand. For Uber, the launch closes out a year of rapid dealmaking — and deployments — with a variety of autonomous vehicle technology companies, including Waymo, China’s WeRide and San Francisco-based startup Nuro. To date, Uber has locked in 20 partnerships with AV companies across freight, delivery and robotaxis, some of which are now in commercial operation. Uber offers autonomous vehicles through its ride-hailing app in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh with WeRide, and in Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix with Waymo. Uber said it plans to have autonomous vehicles on its network in at least 10 cities by the end of 2026. Over the next two years, the plan is to launch AVs on its app in Arlington, Texas, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Munich and the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of these partnerships have included an investment by Uber, and Avride, an Austin-based startup that sits under parent company Nebius Group, is one of those. In October 2024, the ride-hailing company struck a multi-year deal with Avride to bring its sidewalk delivery robots and autonomous vehicles to both Uber Eats and Uber. Within months, Avride’s sidewalk robots began delivering food via the Uber Eats app in Austin, Dallas and Jersey City. This fall, Avride secured strategic investments and commercial commitments worth $375 million from Uber and Nebius, which was previously known as Yandex NV, the Netherlands-based company that sold off its Russian business in 2024. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 Uber’s use of Avride sid...