Uber & Rivian Announce Autonomous R2 Robotaxi Partnership (w/ 1.25 Billion Investment)

[mkhuffman]

The backhoe made the ditch digging more productive, but it also changed who gets the profit. The transition from a shovel to a backhoe happened over decades, allowing the labor market time to adjust.

Modern AI and robotics are moving at an exponential pace with limited opportunity for the displaced, consolidating profits to specific companies.

Labor jobs, while grueling, provided a low-barrier entry point into the workforce for people without (or without access too) formal education or other trade skills.

Of course it changes who gets the profit. Now the backhoe assembly line workers get the profit. And the backhoe operators. And the repair workers who fix the backhoes. And the drivers who transport the backhoes to the job sites. And so on...

The labor market will adjust. It always has, and it always will. History is proof.

And is it really happening faster when we still don't have Rivian's L4, and Rivian is not even planning for it to be available until 2028? And when it becomes available, will it be available everywhere?

Maybe it is faster, maybe it is not. I agree it is happening differently, but the result is still the same. A more productive economy and a higher quality of life for society.

The real reason there is a lack of a low-barrier entry point for labor has to do with government policy. I won't get into that because it will start us down the road to politics, and pollical discussions are not allowed on this forum. As it should be.

Sponsored

 

[strykerwsu]

The EV Charger looks awesome, too bad it's a stellantis and is totally FUBR

The great thing is they are 60% off, for $30k couldn't turn it down. They've downloaded few software updates and there are 12v maintenance items the long time owners have documented. So far as long as maintain the 12v, no issues in 2 months knock on wood. Lots of fun to drive, tons of room, and looks great.

 

[dleepnw]

Surprised but not unexpected. It was clear from Autonomy Day in Dec that this is where Rivian was headed. The reason I'm surprised is its pretty ambitious goals in a short amount of time.

Many of the existing robotaxi companies have taken a long time to get where they are. Rivian has an aggressive timeline so its gonna be tough to get there but technology has improved and they will be able to leapfrog in some ways. Rivian must be confident but not sure they can get there.

... now if they could just get universal hands free to work

 

[savethemanual]

Surprised but not unexpected. It was clear from Autonomy Day in Dec that this is where Rivian was headed. The reason I'm surprised is its pretty ambitious goals in a short amount of time. Many of the existing robotaxi companies have taken a long time to get where they are. Rivian has an aggressive timeline so its gonna be tough to get there but technology has improved and they will be able to leapfrog in some ways...

... now if they could just get universal hands free to work

Isn't Uber going to add additional hardware to their vehicles and also partner with Nuro. At least that's the case with the Lucid Gravity they announced.

 

[Just Passing By]

You are splitting hairs here, the vehicle will be an R2. What specs it has I’m sure are to be determined yet, but no way the body is different than what already will be rolling off the assembly line.

Well ask yourself why Uber would want a 10" ground clearance vehicle that will be difficult for a not insignificant proportion of the the populace to get into? We already have a thread on the challenge step in height can present to older potential R2 owners and those of shorter stature including kids. Rivian could just put smaller wheels and brake calipers and drop the suspension to address this but then would need to modify bodywork and rear doors around the wheel arches to avoid looking odd.

Rivian designed EDV to meet the specific delivery needs of Amazon for IIRC ~100k vehicle commitment, it wasn't a generic van, or even a generic delivery van. Why wouldn't Rivian develop an optimized body for Uber that heavily leverages the R2 platform, given the initial 10k + 40k commitment with the option for an additional 40k in 2031, not to mention Uber's capital injection?

Then look at Uber's competition in the form of the Waymo Zeekr minivan that is rolling out. Not just the vehicle form factor but also the significant additional sensors that Waymo, the industry leader in autonomy, deems necessary for L4 autonomy in a taxi. Wouldn't Uber want the likely requirement for additional sensors in a taxi application (with no optional driver) better integrated than seems possible with a current R2 form factor?

And finally just for s**ts and giggles, maybe Rivian leverages a taxi van design to produce a competitor to the ID Buzz, which would fit right in with Rivian's adventure branding.

 

[R2D2TOO]

I see this as all good news for Rivian, its customers and its stockholders.
They will get more FSD data and real world experience.
They will get more exposure.
They get a cash infusion.
I don’t see a downside, really. Of course there is some risk if it goes badly.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

Whoa. Also… the sound of 50,000 jobs disappearing.

At this point autonomous driving is a jobs creator. Not just any job, but extremely lucrative jobs.

Most autonomous driving end in colossal failures like Ubers on disastrous failure. Yet, companies continue to sink tons of money into them. For some reason investor eat it up.

I say this as an autonomous driving optimist where I'll always choose a Waymo over an Uber. But, its still a long ways away from being viable.

In my experience with anything AI related the second it hits the real world things fall apart.

My expectation is the only thing that will come of this deal is some money for Rivian, and that's a good thing.

I also think we could lose a ton of jobs in the driving sector and we'd still be in need of human drivers especially in the trucking industry.

 

[Jccoryell]

Who is getting in these driverless vehicles? Not me. And if folks think it will be a cheaper ride than with a driver, they've mistaken. Uber will initially charge less to get people to make the switch but will raise prices once they've pushed out all the workers and locked up the industry. They are not spending billions to save you a dollar

 

[savethemanual]

Who is getting in these driverless vehicles? Not me. And if folks think it will be a cheaper ride than with a driver, they've mistaken. Uber will initially charge less to get people to make the switch but will raise prices once they've pushed out all the workers and locked up the industry. They are not spending billions to save you a dollar

There will be competition in this space, that helps keep prices in check!

 

[ukyank]

Wonder if Rivian gets any benefit from the info Uber collected over the years they poured money into their own self driving experiment

 

[Rade]

Good to hear! I hope Rivian meet the benchmarks set with Uber!

 

[CharonPDX]

Whoa. Also… the sound of 50,000 jobs disappearing.

"gig economy" jobs are a scam. Yeah, I know some people do need extra money, and if these services paid a reasonable amount, they might be acceptable. But instead they come in and destroy existing industries (the taxi industry) running purely on investor money, undercharging what they would actually need to charge; then they pivot to charging more than the existing industry did, while underpaying their workers.

And, while "level 5 autonomy" isn't close yet, I do think that eventually "commercial driving" will largely disappear to be replaced with autonomous systems. I even know a truck driver who retired from driving a few years ago to shift careers so that he wasn't caught when it actually happened. (And he thinks it's a GOOD thing to replace truck drivers with autonomous!)

I think it's great Rivian is getting investment, and I'd rather Ubers be Rivians than Teslas, even if I refuse to use Uber.

 

[BanditTA]

Not sure about you guys but I’m paranoid already having to drive near Waymo’s here in San Jose now.

Being fully surrounded by these driverless things freaks me out. I get that human drivers around here are likely worse than them, but what happens when a sensor goes awry and kills someone.

 

[kenyee]

Not sure about you guys but I’m paranoid already having to drive near Waymo’s here in San Jose now.

Rode in a few on a business trip in LA and they were pretty impressive. Felt very human and Lidar can see better than human eyes (it seemed to look around corners fairly well).
There's a display inside that shows you what it sees...

I'd say they were better mannered and more careful than a lot of human drivers I've seen...

 

[skyguyscott]

Ran across this really comprehensive survey of the entire autonomous driving industry from Business Insider. Definitely worth the time, they don't mention Rivian, probably because their announcement is still so new, but lots of interesting angles covered in the report.

My most lasting take-away: wondering who all are pushing so hard for autonomy, to solve what problem, and for what gain? And will the world actually be any noticeably better, really, when we achieve Level 5?

Sponsored