Hertz Announces Oro Mobility Affiliate to Manage Uber's Upcoming Robotaxi Fleet

Hertz announced a partnership with Uber, Lucid Motors and Nuro to provide day-to-day vehicle asset management, including charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning and depot staffing, on Thursday. The partnership supports Uber’s luxury robotaxi service with Lucid Motors and Nuro, which was announced last year.

The service is set to launch by the end of 2026 in the San Francisco Bay Area using Lucid’s Gravity SUVs and Nuro’s self-driving technology, TechCrunch reported.

Hertz established a new affiliate company called Oro Mobility to handle the work. Oro Mobility will provide integrated fleet management solutions across a range of mobility segments, according to Hertz. “As the industry transitions from personally owned vehicles to commercially operated driver-led and autonomous fleets, Oro aims to fill a critical orchestration and operations gap,” the Hertz press release stated.

Hertz and Uber will explore expansion opportunities in 2027, the companies said. Uber has deals with dozens of autonomous vehicle companies around the world. Uber has plans to order at least 35,000 robotaxi-ready vehicles from Lucid Motors in the coming years.

Uber is starting with 10,000 Gravity SUVs from Lucid Motors. Uber recently announced plans to order another 25,000 EVs from Lucid Motors based on its upcoming mid-sized platform. Uber owns more than 11% of Lucid Motors as part of investments made alongside the vehicle orders.

This partnership follows Hertz's previous efforts in electric vehicles. Hertz went through a bankruptcy restructuring process in 2020. Hertz announced in 2021 that it was buying 100,000 EVs from Tesla.

Hertz's 2021 announcement of buying 100,000 EVs from Tesla helped Tesla reach a $1 trillion valuation for the first time. Hertz announced plans in 2022 to buy up to 175,000 EVs from General Motors.

None of Hertz's EV deals with Tesla, General Motors and Polestar were fully realized. Hertz started a fire sale of the EVs it had bought in early 2024. Hertz's fire sale of EVs in early 2024 was due in part to higher-than-expected maintenance costs from Uber drivers renting the EVs.

The fire sale was also due in part to Tesla slashing prices to stave off competition and boost sales.