Uber turns to Hertz to clean, charge and repair Lucid Motors’ robotaxis

Uber’s upcoming luxury robotaxi service in collaboration with Lucid Motors and Nuro will get a fourth partner: Hertz.

Hertz will provide “day-to-day management of vehicle assets, including shipping, maintenance, repairs, cleaning and warehouse staffing,” the companies announced Thursday. The service, which was announced last year, is supposed to launch by the end of 2026 in the San Francisco Bay Area, using Lucid’s Gravity SUVs and Nuro’s self-driving technology.

Hertz is handling this work through a newly created subsidiary called Oro Mobility, which the leasing company says will “provide integrated fleet management solutions across a range of mobility sectors.”

“As the industry shifts from personally owned vehicles to driver-driven, autonomous and commercially operated fleets, Oro aims to fill a critical gap in coordination and operations,” Hertz’s press release said.

This isn’t the first time Hertz, which went through bankruptcy restructuring in 2020, has pursued new mobility trends.

The company made a splash in 2021 when it announced it would buy 100,000 electric cars from Tesla, news that helped Elon Musk’s car company reach a trillion-dollar valuation for the first time (and helped Hertz’s image after it emerged from bankruptcy). Hertz also announced its plans in 2022 to purchase up to 175,000 electric vehicles from General Motors, and another 65,000 from Polestar.

None of these deals ever fully materialized, and Hertz began selling its electric cars at lower prices king It was purchased in early 2024. It did so in part because of higher-than-expected maintenance costs due to Uber drivers leasing electric cars, and because Tesla cut prices to fend off competition and boost sales.

However, creating a fleet management and operations arm would have to be closer to Hertz’s core competencies as a car rental giant. Competitors like Avis are already doing this kind of work for Waymo. And with robotics companies seemingly keen to use third parties to manage this piece of the puzzle, Hertz could build a decent business with Oro.

For example, Hertz and Uber said Thursday that they “will explore expansion opportunities in 2027.” Uber deals with dozens of self-driving car companies around the world, and has plans to order at least 35,000 automated taxi-ready vehicles from Lucid Motors alone in the coming years. It’s starting with 10,000 Gravity SUVs, and recently announced plans to order another 25,000 electric vehicles from Lucid Motors that will be based on its upcoming midsize platform. (Uber also now owns more than 11% of Lucid Motors as part of investments it has made alongside car orders.)