The paperwork is moving in Nuro’s favor. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles just gave the Nvidia-backed autonomous startup permission to test Lucid Gravity SUVs without a human safety operator behind the wheel, marking a genuine milestone in the long, messy road toward commercial robotaxi operations.
Except here’s the thing: Nuro says it’s not actually ready to use that permission yet.
This is the strange reality of autonomous vehicle development in 2026. Regulatory approvals and technical readiness don’t always move in sync. You can have the permit but not the confidence. You can pass the test but still need more data. The California DMV confirmed the permit modification on Tuesday, but Nuro spokesperson David Salguero only said the company expects to begin driverless testing “later this year,” without committing to specifics.
It’s the kind of careful, measured pace that defines this industry right now.
The Permit is Just One Checkbox
Here’s what’s worth noting: this permit is actually a big deal, but it’s also just one box checked in a much longer list. Nuro has held a driverless permit for six years already, but it was tied to a low-speed delivery vehicle that the company scrapped when it pivoted toward licensing its autonomous tech to companies like Uber.
This new permit is different. It opens the door to testing passenger vehicles at speed on public roads without human operators. That’s a real escalation from where they were before.
But it’s not the finish line. Not even close.
Before Uber can actually launch its premium robotaxi service with Lucid Gravity vehicles, Nuro still needs to clear several more regulatory hurdles. It needs a driverless ride-hailing permit from the California Public Utilities Commission. It needs a deployment permit from the DMV. These aren’t formalities. They’re real gatekeepers, and California takes them seriously.
For now, Nuro and Uber are still operating with a safety driver in the seat. Last month, they expanded testing to let Uber employees request an autonomous ride through the Uber app, but a trained operator remains present. It’s a halfway point, useful for gathering data and working out kinks, but not the autonomous future that either company is selling.
Uber is Betting Bigger
The interesting angle here is how much Uber has escalated its commitment to this particular vision. When the Technology partnership was announced back in July 2025, Uber said it would invest $300 million in Lucid and purchase 20,000 robotaxi-ready Gravity vehicles.
That commitment has since nearly doubled. Uber is now investing $500 million and committing to a minimum of 35,000 robotaxis. The deal structure changed too. Instead of just Gravity SUVs, the order now includes at least 10,000 Gravity vehicles and 25,000 EVs built on Lucid’s upcoming mid-size platform, all equipped with Nuro’s autonomous system.
This isn’t casual participation. This is Uber saying it believes in this path forward enough to write bigger checks and take on more inventory risk.
Those Lucid vehicles come loaded with the hardware Nuro needs: high-resolution cameras, solid-state lidar sensors, and radars that give the self-driving system a fighting chance at perceiving what’s actually happening on the road. The whole setup is powered by Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor computer, which tells you something about the computing power required to make this work at scale.
Lucid has already delivered 75 engineering vehicles to Nuro and Uber across several U.S. cities. The mileage is accumulating. The testing is ongoing.
The Timeline Gets Real
During its first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Lucid said it’s on track for commercial robotaxi operations to begin in late 2026. That’s less than eight months away, which is either ambitious or delusional depending on how you look at it.
There’s a caveat worth highlighting though: those operations might not be fully driverless initially, and they could be geographically limited or otherwise constrained by whatever regulatory approvals actually materialize. Lucid executives struck an optimistic tone on the call, saying development and certifications are moving as expected, but they’re also being careful not to overpromise on the specifics.
That’s probably wise. The autonomous vehicle industry has a long history of overpromising on timelines.
What we’re watching right now is whether this particular constellation of Business partnerships and regulatory approvals can actually move in concert. Nuro has the tech. Lucid has the vehicles. Uber has the money and the user base. Nvidia has the silicon. California has the frameworks for approval.
The question is whether they can all dance together long enough to actually get driverless robotaxis on the road at scale, or whether this becomes another example of how hard it is to turn autonomous vehicle promises into actual operations.
