Uber has launched a new robotaxi service in Dallas through a partnership with Avride. The move sent the stock up nearly 4% on Wednesday. Starting this week, select passengers who request an UberX, Comfort, or Comfort Electric ride may be matched with an all-electric Hyundai (HYMLF) Ioniq 5 Avride robotaxi. This upgrade will serve a nine square mile area including Downtown, Uptown, Turtle Creek and Deep Ellum.
“We continue to build for an increasingly electric and self-driving future, and we are excited to launch self-driving in Dallas with Avride,” said Sarfraz Maredia, global head of self-driving at Uber. “With the world’s largest hybrid network, we are proving how AVs and drivers can work together to make travel more convenient, sustainable, and affordable for people everywhere.”
“Robo-taxi is something we’ve been building since day one, and we’re excited to begin deploying robotaxi in Dallas with our partners at Uber,” said Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Avride. “Building on the success of our self-driving delivery partnership, we are now expanding our collaboration with Uber to bring our core technology to passenger mobility and lay the foundation for scalable self-driving transportation.
Uber also said Tuesday that fully driverless cars will become a reality “in the future.” Shares of the ride-sharing service were up 3.46% to $90 at market close. As robotaxi competition intensifies, companies like Alphabet (GOOGL) (which owns Waymo), Tesla (TSLA), and UBER are enjoying great success, as evidenced by their stock valuations. Uber stock has risen 43% since the beginning of the year, making it the biggest gainer of the three companies. Earlier this summer, Uber reportedly negotiated with a number of banks and private institutions to obtain funding to expand its robotaxi service.
