TechCrunch Industry News Uber launches an ‘AV Labs’ division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners; plus, Luminar receives a larger $33 million bid for its lidar business
Jan 27, 2026
Uber is launching AV Labs to gather and sell real-world driving sensor data to robotaxi partners. The conversation digs into why massive, diverse driving datasets help solve rare edge-case scenarios. There's also coverage of a new $33 million bid in the Luminar lidar bankruptcy, shifting the auction dynamics.
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Uber Becomes A Data Provider For AVs
- Uber launched AV Labs to collect and curate real-world driving data for autonomous vehicle partners instead of building its own robotaxis.
- The division will preprocess and semantically label data, and may run partner software in shadow mode to flag discrepancies.
Real-World Data Beats Simulation For Edge Cases
- Autonomous driving is shifting from rules-based systems to reinforcement learning that needs huge amounts of real-world data.
- Larger datasets help uncover extreme edge cases that simulations miss, improving robo-taxi safety and behavior.
Start By Building The Data Foundation
- Uber told TechCrunch it won't charge for data access initially while it builds the data foundation and product-market fit.
- They plan to preprocess data and run partners' driving software in shadow mode to surface training signals and behavioral mismatches.