Autonomous Driving Developer Motional to Deliver Uber Eats Orders With Self-Driving Vehicles in California
【Summary】Motional, the $4 billion autonomous driving joint venture formed by automaker Hyundai Motor Co and mobility technology company Aptiv, announced a partnership with Uber Technologies Inc to deliver Uber Eats food orders using self-driving vehicles. The service will kick off in early 2022 in Santa Monica, California.

Motional, the $4 billion autonomous driving joint venture formed by automaker Hyundai and Aptiv, announced a partnership with Uber Technologies Inc to deliver Uber Eats food orders using self-driving vehicles.
The service will kick off in early 2022 in Santa Monica, California.
The partnership is Uber's first on-road delivery service with an autonomous vehicle (AV) technology provider. It will also be the first time that Motional's SAE Level 4 vehicles are used for delivery service instead of carrying passengers.
Motional will use its next-generation electric Hyundai IONIQ 5-based robotaxi, which have been outfitted to deliver food orders that need to be kept hot or cold while in transit.
"We're excited to partner with Motional to test a new kind of delivery for Uber Eats consumers in 2022," said Sarfraz Maredia, VP and Head of Uber Eats in the US & Canada. "Our consumers and merchant partners have come to expect convenience, reliability and innovation from Uber, and this collaboration represents a huge opportunity to meet —and exceed— those expectations."
Motional's partnership with Uber will leverage its industry-leading expertise in operating commercial autonomous fleets and integrating its technology with on-demand consumer applications. Motional's driverless technology is also powering an autonomous ride-hailing service with its pattern Lyft Inc in Las Vegas.
Hyundai and Aptiv first started testing its autonomous technology in Las Vegas four years ago with Lyft. Customers in Las Vegas are being picked up in autonomous vehicles that can be summoned using Lyft's smartphone app.
The Uber Eats autonomous delivery service will use Hyundai's new IONIQ 5 robotaxi.
Since the pandemic began in early 2020, Uber Eats has been the main source of profit for Uber and the division has experienced rapid growth as its core ride hailing business slowed as people stayed at home.
Uber Eats delivers meals from restaurants and grocery stores. The division leverages Uber's industry-leading ride-hailing technology and logistics expertise to complete most deliveries in under 30 minutes. Uber Eats has partnered with roughly 780,000 merchants in 6,000 cities around the world, giving customers conventiance access to a wide variety of on-demand products.
"Today, Motional enters the autonomous delivery market," said Karl Iagnemma, Motional's President and CEO. "We're proud that our first delivery partner is Uber and are eager to begin using our trusted driverless technology to offer efficient and convenient deliveries to customers in California. We're confident this will be a successful collaboration with Uber and see many long-term opportunities for further deploying Motional's technology across the Uber platform."
Autonomous driving technology has the potential to reshape food delivery. The combined U.S. market for driverless robotaxi and food delivery service is expected to exceed $115 billion by 2030. Demand for food delivery has doubled since the start of the pandemic, and the use of mobile food delivery apps like Uber Eats is up more than 20% this year alone.
Last week, Uber participated in a $13 million funding round of startup Serve Robotics, a Redwood City, California-based company that's developing tiny autonomous robots for meals or groceries. Serve Robotics announced a delivery partnership with Uber Eats in November.
The delivery bots are fully-electric and can operate on sidewalks and other locations that cars cannot, making them well suited for app-based food delivery services in urban areas. The on-demand robotic delivery service will be available to Uber Eats customers starting in Los Angeles early next year.
Motional and Uber will share additional details about this new service ahead of launch early next year.
-
Ford Motor Co is Recalling 39,000 Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs Over Engine Fire Risk
-
BMW iVentures Announces Lead Investment in Mangrove Lithium, a Company Developing ‘Green Lithium’ Refining Technology
-
Motional Kicks off its Robot Food Delivery Pilot With Uber Eats in Southern California
-
Specs and Photos of NIO’s New ES7 Electric SUV Revealed in a Regulatory Filing in China Ahead of its Launch
-
Tesla is Recalling 130,000 Vehicles to Address Touchscreen Display Malfunctions Caused by Overheating, its 11th Recall This Year
-
Hyundai Plans to Build a New U.S. EV Factory in Georgia, According to Sources
-
Tesla Aims to Make China the ‘World’s Largest Vehicle Export Hub’ with a Second Factory
-
Fisker Inc. Teases a New High-Performance, Grand Touring Electric Sports Car, Says it Will Have the Longest Range of Any Production EV
- Honda Announces Plan to Invest $40 Billion Into Electrification Goals
- Tesla’s Supplier Panasonic to Begin Producing More Powerful ‘4680’ Battery Cells by March 2024
- Toyota Increases the Range of its bZ4X Electric Crossover Ahead of its European Launch This Summer
- Tesla Challenger NIO Inc. Delivers its 200,000 Electric Vehicle, a Significant Milestone
- Xpeng-backed eVTOL Startup HT Aero Plans to Debut its Two-Seat X2 'Flying Car' in Europe
- Audi’s New Urbansphere Concept Shows How People Might Travel in the Future When a Human Driver is Longer Needed
- GM is Making an Additional $3.4 Billion Investment in Autonomous Driving Technology Developer Cruise, Will Acquires Softbank’s Stake in the Company
- Jeep’s First Electric SUV Coming in 2023, But it Won’t Be a Wrangler
- Uber to Make Taxis Available on its Ride-Hailing App in San Francisco in a New Partnership with Flywheel Technologies
- EV Charging Provider ChargePoint Plans to Build an ‘Electric Ecosystem’ for Battery-Powered, Autonomous Trucks