Nuro Got Its Driverless Permit. The Safety Data Says It Hasn’t Earned It.

Uber has a ballot measure running in California that would limit how injured passengers can sue robotaxi companies — and the company's chosen test vehicle for its driverless future is a startup that drove fewer miles last year than its two main competitors combined, while getting into trouble more often.

Nuro logged 157,561 miles of testing in California during 2025, down from 210,544 miles in 2024. It recorded 244 disengagements — instances where a human safety driver took control — nearly two and a half times the 103 it recorded the prior year. That works out to one intervention every 646 miles on average, a sharp decline from one every 2,044 miles in 2024, according to disengagement reports all AV companies submitted to the California DMV, compiled by Consumer Watchdog.

Waymo, the clear leader in California, reported 3,346,709 miles with 174 disengagements over the same period — one every 19,234 miles. Zoox, the Amazon-backed competitor, reported 1,213,646 miles with 20 disengagements — one every 60,682 miles. Both improved their rates year over year. Nuro did the opposite.

"The data isn't exactly a vote of confidence for the new Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxi that hopes to roll out in San Francisco later this year," said Justin Kloczko, director of the Privacy and Technology program at Consumer Watchdog, which compiled the figures.

The disengagement figures are the best public window into how these systems actually perform, though the data has limits. Reporting is voluntary in some contexts, companies define disengagements differently, and the numbers reflect testing conditions rather than commercial service. California is rewriting its AV regulations and the new rules may change what gets reported and how.

What Nuro does have is a new vehicle type on its driverless permit. The company added the Lucid Gravity electric SUV to its existing California DMV authorization in early April, authorizing testing at up to 45 miles per hour, day or night, on dry or wet pavement including light rain and moderate fog. Nuro has held driverless authorization since 2020, but only for its own low-speed R3 delivery pod — a small vehicle that never entered commercial service. The Lucid Gravity is a three-row electric crossover that will eventually carry Uber passengers.

Nuro and Uber expect to begin fully driverless testing later this year in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The permit does not authorize commercial service. Nuro still needs a driverless ride-hailing permit from the California Public Utilities Commission and a full deployment permit from the DMV before it can charge passengers. The company is not launching a robotaxi service. It is running empty cars in two counties.

The timing of Uber's California ballot measure adds a layer the disengagement numbers don't capture. The measure would restrict legal liability for injuries caused by Uber's driverless vehicles, limiting plaintiffs' rights to contingency fee attorneys. Consumer Watchdog calls it a "License to Kill" provision. If it passes, companies with the least proven safety record would have the most legal protection — a bargain critics say inverts the normal incentive structure for deploying autonomous systems on public roads.

Nuro disputes the comparison. The company argues its system is fundamentally different from Waymo's, and that the 2025 testing deliberately targeted harder edge cases — dense urban environments and adverse weather — that inflated its disengagement counts. Under that reading, the regression reflects ambition rather than failure. The company points to its six-year driverless permit history as evidence of sustained capability.

Uber is betting heavily that Nuro will close the gap. The company has invested $500 million in Lucid Motors — $200 million of that in the first quarter of 2026 alone — and committed to a minimum of 35,000 vehicles for the robotaxi program: 10,000 Lucid Gravity SUVs and 25,000 midsize EVs to be built on Lucid's upcoming platform. Lucid delivered all 75 of its robotaxi alpha test vehicles to Nuro and Uber during the first quarter of 2026.

Waymo is operating driverless commercial rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Zoox is testing in San Francisco and Foster City. Nuro is testing with a safety driver in several U.S. cities and, notably, in Tokyo — where the same Lucid Gravity vehicles run with human backup drivers present, according to Engadget. The Tokyo operations, conducted with Toyota's backing, suggest Nuro is not yet confident enough in its stack to run fully driverless in any market, including its own.