{"id":49967,"date":"2026-05-06T00:19:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/california-grants-nuro-driverless-testing-permit-for-lucid-gravity-robotaxis\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:20:38","slug":"california-nuro-lucid-gravity-driverless-testing-permit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/california-nuro-lucid-gravity-driverless-testing-permit\/","title":{"rendered":"California Grants Nuro Driverless Testing Permit for Lucid Gravity Robotaxis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The California Department of Motor Vehicles<\/a> has granted autonomous vehicle startup Nuro<\/a> a crucial permit to begin driverless testing of its autonomous technology on the Lucid<\/a> Gravity SUV on public roads. This modified permit is a significant regulatory milestone, as it allows Nuro to operate the Lucid vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel for the first time. While the company has held a driverless permit for six years, it was previously limited to a low-speed delivery vehicle program that was later discontinued. Nuro, which is backed by major players like Nvidia<\/a> and Uber, has stated that it plans to commence this driverless testing later this year<\/a>, though specific timing details remain undisclosed.<\/p>\n

This testing permit is a key step in a broader and ambitious three-way partnership between Nuro, Lucid, and Uber. The ultimate goal is to deploy these Lucid Gravity vehicles as part of Uber’s planned premium robotaxi service. To achieve a full commercial launch, the partnership must clear several additional regulatory hurdles, including obtaining a driverless ride-hailing permit from the California Public Utilities Commission and a deployment permit from the DMV. For now, testing continues with a human safety operator present in the driver’s seat, and Uber employees in select cities are already able to request these supervised autonomous rides through the Uber app.<\/p>\n

The partnership’s scale and commitment have grown substantially since its initial announcement. Uber has significantly increased its investment in Lucid, raising it from $300 million to $500 million. Its vehicle order has also expanded from 20,000 to a minimum of 35,000 robotaxi-ready vehicles. This order will include at least 10,000 Lucid Gravity SUVs and 25,000 electric vehicles based on Lucid’s upcoming mid-size platform. These vehicles will be equipped with Nuro’s autonomous driving system, powered by Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor computer and a suite of sensors including high-resolution cameras, solid-state lidar, and radar.<\/p>\n

Lucid has reported steady progress, having already delivered 75 engineering vehicles to Nuro and Uber for testing and development. The company stated during its recent earnings call that it is on track to begin commercial robotaxi operations by late 2026, though the initial service may have limitations depending on final regulatory approvals. The collaboration represents a major convergence of expertise: Lucid’s luxury electric vehicle manufacturing, Nuro’s autonomous driving technology, and Uber’s vast ride-hailing network and operational scale, marking a concerted push to bring a new generation of robotaxis to market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has granted autonomous vehicle startup Nuro a crucial permit to begin driverless testing of its autonomous technology on the Lucid Gravity SUV on public roads. This modified permit is a significant regulatory milestone, as it allows Nuro to operate the Lucid vehicles without a human safety operator behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":85662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cards.overcentral.com\/cards\/en\/49967.png","fifu_image_alt":"California Grants Nuro Driverless Testing Permit for Lucid Gravity Robotaxis","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cards.overcentral.com\/cards\/en\/49967.png","fifu_image_alt":"California Grants Nuro Driverless Testing Permit for Lucid Gravity Robotaxis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}