Uber Partners With Autonomous Vehicle Startup Avride: But Retail Anxious Over Stock’s Recent Decline

Uber Technologies (UBER) on Thursday announced a multi-year partnership with autonomous vehicle startup Avride to bring the firm’s delivery robots and autonomous vehicles to Uber and Uber Eats.

Avride is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has additional R&D hubs around the world. The company develops and operates both autonomous cars and delivery robots that utilize shared technologies. Uber highlighted that the firm’s delivery robots are already making commercial deliveries in the U.S. and South Korea and its autonomous cars are currently being tested on public roads.

The company said the partnership will commence with sidewalk robots on Uber Eats in Austin in the coming weeks. It will then expand to Dallas and Jersey City, New Jersey, later this year.

The ride-hailing firm explained that following the launch of the partnership, when a consumer requests a qualifying delivery or ride on the Uber Eats or Uber apps, they may be presented with the option to have the trip fulfilled by an Avride delivery robot or autonomous vehicle.

Avride CEO Dmitry Polishchuk said the firm plans to expand the total fleet of robots operating within Uber Eats to hundreds in 2025, followed by the launch of the robotaxi service.

However, retail sentiment on Stocktwits dipped further into the ‘bearish’ territory (34/100) as investors fretted about the stock’s fall below a crucial trend line.

Notably, the firm has been announcing partnerships with multiple companies in recent times. For instance, Uber and Chinese self-driving technology firm WeRide announced a strategic partnership under which WeRide’s autonomous vehicles will be brought onto the Uber platform, beginning in the United Arab Emirates.

The partnership will be first launched in Abu Dhabi where a dedicated number of WeRide vehicles will be made available to consumers using the Uber app.

Earlier, Uber and Alphabet Inc (GOOG) (GOOGL)-owned Waymo had announced an extension of their partnership. Beginning in early 2025, Waymo and Uber will bring autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta, only on the Uber app.

Under the partnership, the ride-hailing firm will manage and dispatch a fleet of Waymo’s fully autonomous, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles. Uber said that riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric may be matched with a Waymo for qualifying trips.

Uber shares have gained nearly 25% since the beginning of the year, slightly outperforming the benchmark indices. Investors will now be watching for the stock’s near-term performance given its decline below a crucial technical level.