Volkswagen and Uber announce partnership to rival Tesla's Robotaxi: 'We will scale at the speed of trust'

Volkswagen is partnering with Uber to bring its electric self-driving minivan to car sharing in the United States in 2026, according to EVXL.

The minivan has a significant sensor suite, making it perfect for autonomous driving. In fact, it has 13 cameras, nine LiDAR sensors, and five radar sensors. While it's still in the testing phases now, these promise to help it navigate complex situations without endangering its passengers.

This is one more significant step toward an all-electric future, where we depend on electricity instead of dirty chemicals like gasoline and oil.

For a long time, electric vehicles didn't make environmental sense. However, now they are better for our planet than gas-powered options. According to Reuters, a Tesla only has to drive 13,500 miles before it is doing less harm than a similarly-sized gas vehicle.

Sure, there's mining involved in making electric car batteries. That involves removing 30 million tons of minerals like lithium from the earth each year. However, we are also removing 16.5 billion tons of dirty fuel in that same year. According to Statistics by the Numbers, mining for electric cars may take fewer resources than other forms, too.

Despite these very real numbers, it may take people a while to trust a self-driving taxi.

"We will scale at the speed of trust," said Sascha Meyer, the CEO of the division of Volkswagen that is designing this vehicle.

It may take a while to roll these out across the country and the world, but doing this carefully will be worth it when people are willing to trust the cars with their lives.

If you decide to make your next car an electric vehicle, you can enhance your energy savings by investing in solar panels at the same time, because using them to power charging your car is a lot better for the planet and cheaper than using public charging stations. EnergySage can give you quotes on installing solar panels that help you compare and save up to $10,000 on your next installation.

Would you be more likely to get an EV if it helped cut your energy costs?

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