This Week in Startups Uber, Lucid & Nuro team up on robotaxis by 2026 | E2173
Today’s show:
Jason and Alex are joined by Nuro’s Dave Ferguson to unpack the Lucid–Uber–Nuro deal aiming to launch fully driverless Gravity SUVs on Uber by 2026. They dig into why off-the-shelf sensors and Nvidia’s Thor chip drive costs down, how mapping 150 cities improves safety, and why lidar still matters for night and edge cases. Plus: lessons from Cruise’s collapse, how regulators think about safety multiples, and why autonomy could finally make rides cheaper than owning a car.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Show intro…
(06:23) Uber x Lucid x Nuro: why this 2026 robotaxi deal matters
(09:57) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(11:13) What the self-driving “cost stack” really looks like in 2025
(14:08) Road-mapping at scale: Nuro’s 150-city data collection push
(15:38) Can AVs handle snow & rain? Weather rollout and Uber Black positioning
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(21:07) Show Continues…
(24:24) Probabilistic vs. deterministic driving models — and the DARPA roots
(30:08) Stripe Startups - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on stripe.com/startups.
(31:08) Show Continues…
(35:38) Post-Cruise reality check: transparency, regulators & trust
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(09:57) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
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