Uber And Partner Momenta Will Start Testing Robotaxis In Europe Next Year

Uber and its caller partner Momenta will commencement testing an autonomous ride-sharing work successful Europe successful 2026, Momenta announced. The work will footwear disconnected successful Munich, Germany utilizing Momenta's self-driving tech and Uber's ride-sharing platform, pinch nan extremity of early European description . The companies chose Munich to footwear disconnected nan cognition owed to nan city's "deep-rooted engineering heritage, top-tier automotive ecosystem and openness to innovation," Momenta said.

Momenta and Uber announced a "strategic agreement" successful May this twelvemonth to motorboat a robotaxi work pinch information drivers aboard to commencement with. Momenta was 1 of China's first autonomous conveyance companies and has been testing self-driving cars successful nan federation since 2018, pinch plans to rotation retired a commercialized cognition astatine its guidelines successful Shanghai adjacent year. It besides builds ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) for awesome automakers including Mercedes-Benz and Audi, pinch complete 400,000 installed to date.

Europe has been slower than nan US and China to adopt self-driving taxis, but that has started to change. Uber will beryllium competing pinch Baidu, which announced plans to commencement testing its Apollo Go self-driving work successful Switzerland arsenic early arsenic this year. Another company, WeRide, launched its ain aviator programme successful Switzerland successful January 2025 and started testing a driverless shuttle strategy successful France soon aft that.

Elsewhere, Uber has collaborated pinch different self-driving conveyance companies including WeRide, Pony.AI and Momenta successful nan Middle East. It besides has a deal pinch UK-based Wayve to motorboat self-driving thrust sharing tests successful London adjacent year, and precocious said it would connection ride-sharing services successful Los Angeles utilizing an autonomous type of Volkswagen's ID. Buzz.

Uber and Momenta's Munich work will usage Level 4 self-driving vehicles that tin beryllium operated without a information driver successful preset geographical areas. The companies will request to get certification from nan German authorities and support for nan "geofenced zones" wherever it's allowed to operate.

Uber primitively planned to build its ain self-driving cars but abandoned nan idea successful 2020 pursuing nan decease of a pedestrian and ungraded astir alleged waste and acquisition concealed theft from Waymo. Since then, it has taken nan way of partnering pinch autonomous conveyance manufacturers, including nan aforementioned Waymo successful Austin and Atlanta.