Uber made headlines this week by announcing a $100 million investment in Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide. The move strengthens their partnership and aims to expand WeRide’s robotaxi services to 15 more cities over the next five years.

This isn’t their first collaboration. Late last year, Uber and WeRide launched a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, signaling growing interest from established transport companies in the autonomous vehicles sector.

The timing is notable. Just weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to start commercial robotaxi operations soon, despite ongoing questions about cost and timeline.

Drop in Venture Capital for Autonomous Vehicles

While large companies ramp up their efforts, venture capital firms are stepping back. So far this year, funding for autonomous vehicle startups has reached just $1.1 billion — a steep decline from $12.1 billion the previous year and $5.9 billion the year before that.

Interestingly, the largest funding round in this space so far hasn’t gone to a traditional self-driving car developer. Instead, drone company Shield AI secured $240 million in strategic funding, valuing the startup at $5.3 billion.

By contrast, the biggest round in 2024 went to Waymo, which raised $5.6 billion from Alphabet, pushing its valuation past $45 billion. That marked its first major funding since 2021.

Industry Shifts Toward Corporate Investment

After years of heavy spending, many venture capitalists seem to be stepping back from autonomous vehicles. Instead, public companies with deeper pockets are leading the charge. Based on the uncertain returns from earlier investments, that may be a strategic shift in the right direction.