Lucid Group Inc. (LCID) just made its biggest bet yet on autonomous vehicles, and it's bringing some serious partners along for the ride. The electric vehicle maker unveiled a robotaxi prototype on Monday built in collaboration with Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) and Nuro Inc., signaling its ambitions to compete in the self-driving space against heavyweights like Tesla and Waymo.
Inside the Robotaxi Prototype
The prototype itself is based on Lucid's Gravity SUV and made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026. The vehicle comes loaded with the usual autonomous vehicle toolkit: cameras, radars, and LiDAR sensors. What's interesting is how Lucid arranged them. The sensors sit in a "halo" structure on the roof, borrowing from the playbook of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG) subsidiary Waymo, whose autonomous vehicles have become a familiar sight in several U.S. cities.
Under the hood (or more accurately, under the sensors), the robotaxi will run on Nvidia Corp.'s (NVDA) DRIVE AGX Thor technology, which is part of the chipmaker's DRIVE Hyperion platform. That's the same tech Nvidia has been pushing as the brains behind the next generation of self-driving vehicles.
Production Timeline and Rollout Plans
Lucid isn't just showing off vaporware here. The company says it intends to start production at its Arizona facility later this year, with a San Francisco Bay Area launch targeted for sometime in 2026. Customers will be able to hail these robotaxis through the Uber app, which makes sense given Uber's role as a partner in the project.
The longer-term vision is even more ambitious. Lucid aims to deploy over 20,000 Gravity robotaxis across multiple U.S. cities over the next five years. That's a bold target for a company that's still working to establish itself in the competitive EV market.
Strong Delivery Numbers Provide Momentum
The robotaxi announcement comes at a good time for Lucid, which just reported some encouraging numbers for 2025. The automaker delivered 15,841 vehicles last year, representing a 55% surge compared to 2024. On the production side, things looked even better: Lucid produced 18,378 vehicles in 2025, a 104% increase year-over-year.
Those numbers suggest Lucid is making progress on the manufacturing front, which matters when you're talking about scaling up to produce thousands of specialized robotaxis.
Musk Sounds Skeptical Note on Self-Driving Tech
Not everyone is convinced the autonomous vehicle race will be easy to win. Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk responded to Nvidia's latest self-driving technology unveiled at CES 2026, which touts a vision-language-action (VLA) approach. Musk wished the chipmaker well but added a cautionary note, suggesting that self-driving technology could be difficult to scale.
That's a bit rich coming from someone whose company has been promising full self-driving capability is just around the corner for years, but Musk isn't wrong that turning prototype technology into a reliable, widely deployed service has proven challenging for everyone in the space.
What It All Means
Lucid is making a calculated play here. Rather than going it alone like Tesla with its planned robotaxi network, Lucid is partnering with an established ride-hailing platform and leveraging proven technology from Nvidia. The Waymo-style sensor setup suggests they're taking a more traditional approach to autonomy rather than betting everything on cameras like Tesla has.
Whether this strategy pays off depends on execution. Can Lucid ramp production fast enough? Will the technology be ready for prime time by 2026? And can they actually hit that 20,000-vehicle deployment target? Those are the questions that will determine whether this announcement becomes a meaningful part of Lucid's business or just another ambitious prototype that never quite makes it to scale.
Price Action: LCID shares edged up 0.17% to $11.71 in after-hours trading, according to market data.