Uber Deploys 500 Specialized Vehicles for Data Collection

On Wednesday, Uber unveiled a new prototype vehicle designed to collect real-world driving data. This data is intended for use by the company's growing autonomous vehicle partners, including Avride, Waymo, and WeRide. The outwardly standard Hyundai Ioniq 5 is equipped with numerous sensors mounted on its roof and sides. Techcrunch.com reports .

This project marks several key milestones for Uber. It is the first vehicle the company has deployed (with partner assistance) since selling its autonomous driving unit to Aurora in 2020. It also represents a success for the AV Labs division, established earlier this year, which facilitates data collection via sensor-equipped Uber cars and shares it with over 30 technology partners.

Uber plans to deploy 500 such Hyundai electric vehicles globally by the end of this year. This fleet will be capable of collecting high-fidelity data covering 2 million miles per month for robotaxis. 50 of these vehicles are expected to hit the roads by summer.

Technically, the Ioniq 5 models are equipped with 14 cameras, 8 solid-state lidar sensors, and 9 radars. All collected data is processed via the NVIDIA Dual Drive Thor autonomous vehicle computer. Uber stated it will update the sensor suite in the future based on partner needs.

The company's primary goal is to create the world's most geographically diverse training dataset for autonomous driving. If successful, this dataset will provide partners with a 360-degree, time-synchronized view to train self-driving software.