The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal investigation into Avride, Uber's self-driving vehicle partner, following more than a dozen crashes and at least one minor injury involving its autonomous vehicles.
Avride operates a robotaxi service in partnership with Uber in multiple U.S. cities. The NHTSA probe centers on whether the company's vehicles meet federal safety standards and whether crashes point to systemic defects in the autonomous driving system or hardware.
The investigation marks a significant moment for the autonomous vehicle industry. Avride joins competitors like Waymo and Cruise in facing regulatory scrutiny, though Cruise faced far more serious federal penalties after a hit-and-run incident in San Francisco in 2023 that led to the company's operational shutdown.
Uber has positioned Avride as a core part of its autonomous vehicle strategy after divesting its own self-driving unit, ATG, in 2020. The partnership represents Uber's bet on outsourcing autonomous technology rather than building it internally. Avride itself is backed by investments from Volkswagen Group, which has positioned VW as a major backer of autonomous vehicle development.
The specific crashes under investigation offer limited details at this stage, but the NHTSA typically examines factors like sensor performance, software decision-making, vehicle control systems, and driver safety protocols in robotaxi operations. One minor injury suggests the incidents may not have resulted in severe damage, though the threshold for opening investigations is relatively low.
This investigation comes as autonomous vehicle companies race to expand robotaxi services across major cities. Waymo operates driverless rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Cruise, despite its setbacks, operates in San Francisco with safety drivers. Avride operates in Austin and San Francisco with similar safety protocols.
For Uber, the investigation adds complexity to its autonomous vehicle rollout strategy