Uber has pushed the commercial launch of its robotaxi service with Nuro and Lucid in the San Francisco Bay Area from later this year to the first quarter of 2027, a shift the company disclosed in prepared remarks published with its third-quarter results on Wednesday, eletric-vehicles.com reported. The service will operate fully driverless from day one, a higher bar than originally planned, even though the permits required for paid driverless rides are not yet in hand.
Uber, Nuro, and Lucid spent 2026 telling investors the Bay Area launch was coming “later this year”; now the same companies say Q1 2027, with Houston to follow.
From “Later This Year” to Q1 2027: How the Timeline Slipped
The program’s public dates have moved across three quarterly reports. In its first-quarter remarks on May 6, Uber said employee trips with the Lucid and Nuro vehicles had begun in the Bay Area and the public launch remained “on track for a public launch later this year.” On June 17, the joint announcement naming Houston as the second market still promised an initial San Francisco Bay Area launch “later this year,” with Houston targeted for mid-2027. By the second-quarter remarks in August, Uber had stopped giving a date for the Bay Area at all, saying only that it had “advanced partnerships with Nuro, Wayve, and Zoox” and was preparing “multiple U.S. launches later this year.”
On Wednesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi gave the new date: “We expect to begin fully driverless testing with Nuro and Lucid this quarter, ahead of a commercial launch in the Bay Area in Q1 2027 that will operate fully driverless from day one.” He added that “Houston and additional cities will follow.” Uber did not say which of the three companies decided to move the launch or why.
Chief Financial Officer Balaji Krishnamurthy confirmed the timing on X after a user asked whether the Bay Area launch was no longer happening this year. “In the prepared remarks,” he replied, attaching a screenshot of the autonomous vehicle section containing the first-quarter 2027 timing.
On the earnings call, Khosrowshahi placed Nuro among the partners Uber expects to add next year: “Then next year, we expect to add Nuro in California and then in Houston as well in Texas, at least early on in 2027.”
Why “Driverless From Day One” Raises the Stakes
The new plan sets a higher bar than the one the partners described in June. According to Uber, the Bay Area offering will run without safety drivers right from the outset instead of beginning with supervised trips. That requires permits the program does not yet hold.
On May 8, Nuro announced it had obtained a California Public Utilities Commission permit allowing passenger transport with a safety driver present, and at that time pointed out that the CPUC Drivered Pilot Permit “does not authorize driverless passenger operations.” As of Tuesday, the CPUC’s permit list still indicated Nuro possessed only a “Drivered Pilot” permit. Additionally, per its list updated October 22, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has cleared Nuro to test the Lucid Gravity driverlessly in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties at speeds reaching 45 mph — a testing clearance rather than commercial authorization.
In June, the three companies said Nuro was conducting “24/7 autonomous on-road testing with safety operators in Houston and the San Francisco Bay Area,” with an engineering fleet of “nearly 100 vehicles across California and Texas.” On Tuesday, Nuro said it had briefed police in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Los Altos “to prepare for the launch of our robotaxi program with @Uber and @Lucid.”
The Lucid Gravity Supply Chain Behind the Delay
The initiative traces back to July 2025, when Lucid entered a production deal with Uber in which Uber and its fleet operators committed to purchasing at least 20,000 Gravity Plus vehicles across six years, with production “targeted to occur in late 2026.” An additional agreement from April commits to at least 25,000 Lucid Midsize Plus robotaxis, with production slated for late 2028. Through offset provisions, the two deals raise Uber’s total commitment to “at least 35,000 units,” according to Lucid’s second-quarter 10-Q. As of June 30, Uber had put $500 million into Lucid and held roughly 9.6% of its common stock.
Lucid had previously scheduled both the production of vehicles for commercial launch and the beginning of safety and validation work for early in the fourth quarter, alongside commercial operation in late 2026. On October 20, Lucid said another shipment of robotaxis built at its Arizona factory was on its way to the Bay Area. The hardware is arriving; what has moved is the regulatory and operational readiness to carry paying riders without a human behind the wheel.
Where This Fits in Uber’s Wider Driverless Push
The Bay Area delay sits inside a broader expansion of Uber’s driverless fleet rather than a retreat from it. Khosrowshahi said Uber is “on track for ~700 fully driverless vehicles on Uber by year-end” and expects “over 2,000 fully driverless vehicles on Uber by the end of 2027.” In the U.S., Zoox is expected to launch on Uber in Las Vegas later this month, followed by Motional transitioning to fully driverless operations soon thereafter, with further deployments from Avride in 2027 and supervised NVIDIA and Rivian deployments beginning in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
Krishnamurthy stated Uber’s “long-run expectation is that this should be financed by third-party capital, not by Uber’s balance sheet.” The company reported third-quarter gross bookings of $59.8 billion, up 20%, and revenue of $14.8 billion, up 10%, with shares up 6.8% at $71.12 at 2:03 p.m. in New York. Lucid reports its own third-quarter results on November 9.
The Question Still Open
Uber has not said which partner made the decision to move the launch or what specifically caused the shift — whether permitting, validation mileage, or vehicle supply. What is known is that fully driverless testing with Nuro and Lucid is expected to begin this quarter, that the Bay Area commercial launch is now targeted for Q1 2027, and that Houston remains slated for mid-2027, a date Uber did not update on Wednesday.
