If you're sensing a theme this week: yes, it's robots. They’re delivering food, replacing drivers, and now... conquering the Army? Welcome to 2025, where every vehicle wants to be your chauffeur, strategist, or snack mule. Let’s unpack who’s scaling, who’s simulating, and what it means for your bottom line.
🚗 Lucid Gets a 300M Engagement Ring from Uber in a dystopian three-way with NURO
Remember when Uber bailed on self-driving cars in 2020? Yeah, well, they’re back. Like a reboot nobody asked for, but might actually work this time. Uber proposes with a $300 million diamond, Lucid accepts, and Nuro tags along for the honeymoon. Together, they’re planning a three-way AV lovechild: 20,000 autonomous Lucid SUVs, packed with Nuro’s Level 4 brains, all wrapped in Uber’s app like it’s Tinder for robot rides.
Think Lucid’s fancy Gravity SUVs fused with Nuro’s nerdy Level 4 tech, currently training in Vegas like a Rocky montage for AVs. Expect rollouts in one “major U.S. city” (place your bets: Austin, LA, or wherever regulators can still be bribed with press releases).
Short-term play: Before these robotaxis invade, there’s a juicy in-between moment where Uber still needs human-run cars. Hosts in high-demand zones could feast.
Land grab alert: Uber needs charging hubs, maintenance space, pickup zones. Got a driveway and a 240V plug? You’re suddenly infrastructure.
Future-proofing your fleet: EVs, partnerships, multi-platform listing, it’s all about building a buffer before autonomy eats your margins.
Bottom line: Uber’s making a mega bet. Either it pays off or creates the world’s bougiest, most expensive ghost fleet. Either way, there’s money on the table before the robots take over.
This week’s sponsor:
🔌 Applied Intuition Hits $15B Because Simulators Are the New Oil
Applied Intuition just bagged $600M from BlackRock, Kleiner Perkins, and Qatar’s piggy bank. Their new valuation? A spicy $15 billion. What do they do? Basically, they run The Sims: Robotaxi Edition. Their software simulates every AV scenario under the sun, including rainy streets, jaywalking toddlers, confused raccoons, you name it.
They’re not just nerding out for car companies. They helped the U.S. Army retrofit an infantry vehicle in 10 days. Yeah, we’ve entered the “Call of Duty meets Tesla” phase of the mobility timeline.
Why this matters (even if you don’t speak code):
Simulation is becoming the certification layer for AV rollouts. If your city’s getting these fleets, they were probably stress-tested in Applied’s digital dojo.
This level of control and validation could speed up deployments or strangle smaller AV players who can’t afford the tech.
Heads up, hosts: know who’s testing where, and align your assets accordingly. The rollout may be digital first, but the money still lands in the real world.
⚡ Quick Hits
Serve's autonomous sidewalk bots have landed in Midtown, Old Fourth Ward, and Downtown Atlanta via Uber Eats, offering low-cost, eco-friendly delivery powered by lidar and cameras, no driver required. If you run EV fleets or host charging infrastructure, these bots signal a new layer of demand on local roads and right-of-ways and a chance to provide complementary services
Cartken, known for campus food-delivery robots, is now laser-focused on industrial logistics: moving production samples and supplies in factories and labs with its six-wheeled Courier and heavy-duty Hauler versions. Mobility hosts and parking operators, take note: industrial facilities will need staging zones and charging decks. This could be your foot in the door for B2B robot fleets.
DoorDash doubled down on sidewalk bots by partnering with Coco Robotics to deliver food in Los Angeles and Chicago, building on 100,000+ successful prior runs in Helsinki. Delivery bots are creeping into major metros, making curbspace more contested and creating new service niches. Parking hosts, this could be your next layout play.
📣 Question of the week⁉
What Should We Dig Into Next?
- Fleet Hacks — How to get more ROI out of your EVs.
- Parking Gold — Making cash from curbspace, garages, or lots.
- Startup Gossip — Who’s raising, who’s failing, who’s pivoting to AI.
- AV Policy Drama — Permits, politics, protests, and loopholes.
- Charging Chaos — Infra updates, uptime lies, and who’s fixing it.
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