Uber has re-entered the self-driving arena through a collaboration with Motional, and plans to offer fully driverless rides using Motional electric IONIQ 5-based robotaxis. The 10 year framework agreement is expected to create one of the largest deployments of autonomous vehicles on a major ride-hail network. The collaboration has the potential to see self driving IONIQ vehicles being used by millions of Uber customers.

Motion and Uber will roll out the new self driving services in cities across the United States, with the first customer trips expected to start later this year.

According to Motional, the agreement is the first in the industry to span autonomous vehicle ride-hail and delivery.

As part of the partnership, Uber will share insights to allocate Motional’s vehicles. Both companies see autonomous vehicles as presenting an opportunity to use such insights to optimise operations, including reducing vehicle downtime and unnecessary miles travelled. Uber also expects that data sharing will lead to reduced wait times and lower fares for Uber customers.

“This agreement will be instrumental to the wide scale adoption of robotaxis,” said Karl Iagnemma, President and CEO of Motional. “Motional now has unparalleled access to millions of riders and a roadmap to scale significantly over the next ten years. We’re proud to partner with Uber to bring both driverless ride-hail and deliveries to life in cities throughout the U.S.”

“We’re excited to leverage the power of Uber’s platform to bring Motional’s advanced autonomous technology to a wide range of riders at the push of a button,” said Noah Zych, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility and Delivery at Uber. “The scope of this partnership shows the important role that shared autonomous vehicles will play in the future of transportation, and in Uber’s strategy to be the global platform to help you go anywhere and get anything.”

The agreement expands the existing Motional and Uber partnership following a successful collaboration on delivery. Earlier this year, Motional began conducting autonomous food deliveries for Uber Eats customers in California. The pilot has been well received by customers and Motional and Uber have since expanded their delivery operations to service more restaurants.

“Partnering with Motional to efficiently utilise their fleet of all-electric IONIQ 5 robotaxis will bring us one step closer to achieving our goal of becoming a zero-emissions platform,” said Zych.