Uber launches an ‘AV Labs’ division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners

Uber has launched a new division called Uber AV Labs to collect and share real-world driving data with its autonomous vehicle (AV) partners, including companies like Waymo, Waabi, and Lucid Motors. Although Uber exited direct robotaxi development after a fatal accident in 2018 and sold off its AV division in 2020, it is now leveraging its fleet to gather sensor data (lidars, radars, cameras) from vehicles operating in cities. This data aims to support AV companies in training their systems, especially as the industry shifts from rule-based approaches to reinforcement learning, where extensive real-world data is critical for handling rare and complex driving scenarios. Currently, Uber AV Labs is in an early prototype phase with a single Hyundai Ioniq 5 equipped with sensors, and plans to scale up gradually. The data collected will not be provided raw; instead, Uber will process and refine it to create a semantic understanding layer that partners can use to improve their autonomous driving software. Additionally, Uber