Uber to invest $300 million in EV maker Lucid as part of robotaxi deal

Now if lucid could actually make their gravity suv, I’d have some more optimism. It’s been 7-8 months since they started production and they’ve officially delivered less than 20? With probably half being the initial 9-10 that were employee / executive “production” cars. 300m is also like a 3 months time at Lucids cash burn rate lol.

Why uber? As a shareholder just return this cash to me and I’ll decide what EV company I want to invest in

Its for the robotaxis and tech. They definitely want their own robotaxi service so they're not reliant on someone else (see Waymo)

Should Lucid be expanding to compete with all the other robotaxi companies? They aren't big enough and should be concentrating on their core business rather than trying to compete in what is becoming a crowded market. It will pump the stonk though which the executives will love, gotta pump the stonk.

Still not convinced. I’d rather see them invest in their product and wait and see who wins the robo taxi wars. And I especially wouldn’t bet on lucid or rivian or these other small EV companies. Waymo or Tesla are going to win this race in the US anyway.

But then they're reliant on Waymo using Uber instead of their own app. It's the same way Netflix had to start making its own content to protect against other companies pulling their content. If Waymo wins and uses its own app, Uber is screwed. So they are trying to prevent this reliance. Not saying good or bad, just explaining their reasoning (or my perception of it).

I got the logic. Feels like this is mostly likely burnt money though

Doesn't that mean that executives are getting a car with all the worst flaws and defects that have yet to be ironed out in production? I guess I approve of this practice.

You didn't need a crystal ball to see that Tesla wasn't going to win that race.

Those are crap numbers you have. They produced about 600 alone to ship to Saudi Arabia, they are delivering the dream editions and there should be a bunch all over the USA that are not the 10 suvs to friends and family from last year's event.

You don't even need to see to know Tesla wasn't going to win the race, even a blind man can call it.

I understand the analogy, but I think the flaw in it is that it assumes operating a RoboTaxi will somehow be more profitable than subcontracting out the job to 3 immigrant cousins all sharing their single 2013 Prius with 200k miles, that they service, wash, maintain, register and mostly insure themselves.

Is there a demand for this vehicle?

Mehh don't see it going anywhere.

Exactly this but the lucid folks assure me many customers have received them… insane lol I was at a lucid showroom last week and the gravity was roped off so you couldn’t go in it. I asked and the guy said “because it’s a prototype”. And I was like okay arent you guys delivering already though? He assured me they are. Which certainly can’t be true if they don’t even have a real demo unit in probably their most foot trafficked showroom in the US.

No they’re 3 years late to the $100k 3 row suv segment