Uber is building an autonomous vehicle empire, and here’s every company it’s using to do it
Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — more than 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years
Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — more than 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years. And it’s taking a global approach. Here, TechCrunch tracks every one of those moves in one place. But first, a bit of history. Uber was, at one time, developing and testing its own autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. The company, then led by Travis Kalanick, created Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) in 2014 and recruited dozens of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics program. Two years later, Uber acquired Otto, a self-driving truck company founded by former Google self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski, Lior Ron, Don Burnette (who has since gone on to found Kodiak AI), and Claire Delaunay. Uber also began testing its AVs on public streets in 2016 across California, Pittsburgh, and Arizona. All of that progress unraveled across three defining moments: Waymo’s trade secrets lawsuit against Uber, the resignation of Kalanick in 2017, and a fatal crash in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018 involving its self-driving Volvo XC90, which struck and killed a pedestrian. (The vehicle was in autonomous mode, and a human safety operator behind the wheel at the time wasn’t paying attention.) Uber suspended its testing and reorganized the program, although it never truly returned to its mission. After Dara Khosrowshahi took the wheel at Uber, the company went through a reset. In 2020, Uber walked away from all of its moonshots, including autonomous vehicles, to focus on its core businesses of ride-hailing and delivery using human-driven vehicles. Uber sold Uber ATG to Aurora, Jump to Lime, and Elevate to Joby Aviation. It didn’t completely divest, though. Uber kept equity stakes in all of them. Just two years later, Uber crept back in and started making AV deals. The deal flow picked up in earnest in 2024. Below is the full list, which TechCrunch will keep updated as Uber makes new moves. Aurora Image Credits:Aurora Innovation Uber has been connected with Aurora since 2020 when, as mentioned above, it sold its Uber ATG unit to the company. Uber received equity in Aurora as part of that deal and still owns that stake. As of this past April, Uber, through its holding company Neben Holdings, owns 325.97 million Aurora Class A shares, representing a 19.7% Class A equity stake and 6.9% voting power, according to SEC filings. Uber Freight, the logistics business spun out of Uber in 2018, announced in June 2024 a multi-year collaboration with Aurora that expanded upon an existing pilot program. In May 2025, the companies said Aurora’s self-driving trucks had been completing roundtrip hauls between Dallas and Houston via the Uber Freight platform. Autobrains In June 2026, the companies announced plans to launch a robotaxi program in Munich, pending regulatory approval. The partnership lacks some details, such as what vehicle will be used. The companies pitched this as an OEM-agnostic model. Vehicles will be equipped with Israel-based Autobrains’ agentic AI driving system, which runs on Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion platform. The robotaxis will be available via Uber’s app. Avomo Avomo, a European company that was previously known as Moove Cars, is an autonomous fleet operator partner. Uber actually took a 30% stake in Avomo in 2021. And while Avomo might not have the same name recognition as other players, it is embedded in Uber’s AV business. For instance, it is the company responsible for managing fleet services such as vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspections, charging, and depot operations for the Waymo-Uber partnership in Austin. Avomo also handles fleet operations for Uber as part of its robotaxi service agreement with WeRide in Madrid, which was announced in June 2026. Important note: don’t mistake Avomo (formerly Moove Cars), for Moove, an African company that manages Waymo’s AV fleet in Phoenix. Avride Image Credits:Avride Avride, the Yandex spinout now under parent company Nebius Group, announced a multi-year deal with Uber in October 2024 to bring Avride’s sidewalk delivery robots and autonomous vehicles to both Uber’s delivery unit, Uber Eats, and Uber’s ride-hailing app. In February 2025, Uber shared in its fourth-quarter earnings that Uber Eats orders in Austin and Dallas were being delivered via autonomous sidewalk robots in partnership with Avride. Avride disclosed in fall 2025 that it had secured strategic investments and commercial commitments worth $375 million from Uber and Nebius. Neither company provided details on the investment and how much was capital. By the end of 2025, Avride robotaxis — built on Hyundai IONIQ 5s outfitted with Avride’s self-driving system — were available on the Uber app in Dallas. The Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Avride in May 2026 after identifying more than a dozen crashes and one minor injury. As of this past June, these were not driverless and still had a human safety operator behind the wheel. Baidu Uber announced a multi-year strategic partnership with the Chinese tech giant in July 2025. Under the agreement, thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles will be deployed on the Uber platform in multiple markets outside the U.S. and mainland China. Those deployments were set to start in Asia and the Middle East later in 2025, the companies said at the time. In late 2025, Baidu said it would start testing Apollo Go robotaxis in London in the first half of 2026 through its partnership with Uber.
The BriefWire