Uber beats Hertz to clean, charge, and repair its Lucid Motors robots

Uber’s upcoming flagship project Lucid Motors and Nuro is getting a fourth partner: Hertz.

Companies he announced Thursday that Hertz will provide “day-to-day vehicle inventory management, including charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and warehouse staff.” The project, which was announced last year, is set to launch in late 2026 in the San Francisco Bay Area, using Lucid’s Gravity SUV and Nuro’s self-driving technology.

Hertz is handling the project through a newly formed unit called Oro Mobility, which the rental company says will “provide integrated solutions for fleet management across the various travel sectors.”

“As the industry transitions from self-driving cars to driver-driven and autonomous fleets, Oro aims to fill the music and performance gap,” Hertz wrote.

This is not the first time that Hertz, which went through a bankruptcy restructuring process in 2020, has adopted new ways of moving.

The company made a big splash in 2021 when it announced it was buying 100,000 EVs from Tesla, news that helped Elon Musk’s car company reach $1 trillion in value for the first time (and helped Hertz’s image as it emerged from bankruptcy). Hertz also announced plans in 2022 to buy up to 175,000 EVs from General Motorsand another 65,000 from Polestar.

None of these things came to fruition, and Hertz launched a fire sale of those EVs he was he bought it early 2024. It did so in part because of higher-than-expected maintenance costs because Uber drivers rent EVs, and because Tesla cut prices to fend off competition and boost sales.

The introduction of fleet management and services, however, should be closer to Hertz’s expertise as a car rental giant. Competitors like Avis are already doing this kind of work for Waymo. And with the robotaxi industry seemingly willing to employ third parties to manage this image, Hertz could make a good business case with Oro.

As such, Hertz and Uber said Thursday that they “see an opportunity to grow in 2027.” Uber deals with many independent companies around the world, and has plans to order 35,000 ready-made cars 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 EVs from Lucid Motors that will an upcoming mid-range platform. (Uber now owns more than 11% of Lucid Motors as part of its investment in the auto industry.)