#67: Uber bets $100M on robotaxi charging

Uber invests $100M in AV charging hubs, FY27 Appropriations Process Kicks Off, Tesla wins FCC approval for wireless Cybercab charging

Author

Steve Taylor
February 28, 2026

The Business and Policy of Charging Infrastructure

The 3 big stories

  • Uber invests $100M+ to build robotaxi charging hubs across the U.S.

  • U.S. House of Representatives kicks off FY27 Appropriations process

  • Tesla wins FCC approval for wireless Cybercab charging system

Plus, featured jobs and news.

Steve

Industry News

Uber is investing more than $100M to build dedicated fast-charging hubs for autonomous vehicles in the U.S., starting in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Dallas. The investment will cover site development, equipment, and grid connections at what Uber is calling its "autonomous depots," where it already manages fleet operations like cleaning, maintenance, and inspections.

The announcement comes as Uber prepares to launch robotaxi services in at least 10 cities by the end of 2026, partnering with Lucid/Nuro in the Bay Area, Volkswagen in LA, and Avride in Dallas. Uber has also signed utilization guarantee agreements with third-party charging operators, including EVgo in the U.S., Electra in Europe, and Hubber and Ionity in London, to deploy roughly 1,000 additional DC fast chargers globally. EVgo's CEO noted that rideshare vehicles now account for 25% of EVgo's network energy, up from 10% just a few years ago.

This announcement builds on Uber's earlier efforts to expand charging access for its human drivers, including its existing discount partnership with Revel in New York. Notably, a recent Uber survey found that driver concerns about charging access have now overtaken worries about EV purchase costs.

Steve's take

This is one of the most significant demand-side commitments to EV charging infrastructure we've seen from a non-automaker. Uber will be using its trip data to decide where infrastructure gets built, then guaranteeing utilization to de-risk the investment for partners like EVgo.

The biggest challenge in public charging has always been the chicken-and-egg problem of building stations before demand materializes. Uber is solving that by bringing guaranteed demand. When a platform that processes millions of trips per day tells a charging operator where to build and promises to fill those stations, the economics completely change.

The dual strategy is also worth pointing out. Uber is building its own depots for robotaxis while simultaneously partnering with third-party operators for human drivers. This positions Uber as both an infrastructure owner and a demand aggregator, two roles that reinforce each other.

What excites me most is that the largest ride-hailing platform in the world now views charging infrastructure as a core competitive asset. The question is whether Uber can maintain this level of capital commitment if its robotaxi rollout hits significant regulatory or technical delays.

Power and Policy

The Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations process in the U.S. House of Representatives officially began on February 25, 2026, when the House Appropriations Committee released its guidance for Members to submit programmatic, language, and Community Project Funding (CPF) requests (available at the link above).

The House Appropriations Committee oversees funding for the federal government through twelve annual appropriations bills, including the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) bill, which funds key transportation programs and housing initiatives. As part of the FY27 cycle, Committee leadership instructed Members to begin entering requests for funding and bill language via the Committee’s electronic portal starting February 25, 2026.

Members must submit programmatic, language, and CPF requests for the THUD bill by Friday, March 20, 2026 at 6:00 p.m.. Following submission, Members are required under House rules to publicly post their Community Project Funding requests on their official websites by Friday, April 17, 2026 at 6:00 p.m..  

Under the Department of Transportation portion of the THUD bill, Community Project Funding opportunities exist for major infrastructure categories including:

 • Airport Improvement Program (AIP) projects (e.g., runway and terminal enhancements),

 • Highway Infrastructure Projects,

 • Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI),

 • Transit Infrastructure Grants, and

 • Port Infrastructure Development.  

For Highway Infrastructure Projects, the guidance emphasizes that requests must be capital projects or project-specific design work supported by state or tribal governments and listed in a Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) or Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Planning, administrative, and general operating costs are explicitly not fundable through CPF.  

Additionally, these project requests must demonstrate community support, show existing or planned funding matches where applicable, and comply with federal requirements such as Buy America provisions and environmental laws like NEPA.

Rob’s take

If you are looking to engage in the FY27 Appropriations process the time is now! Stakeholders should engage early and strategically with Members of the House and their appropriations staff in advance of the subcommittee deadlines (March 20, 2026 for THUD). Because language requests must be submitted directly by Members through the Appropriations Committee portal, outside organizations cannot submit proposals independently

Effective engagement typically includes coordinating with both district and Washington offices, demonstrating alignment with subcommittee jurisdiction and priorities, and ensuring the request does not conflict with authorizing law. Given the compressed spring timeline and high volume of requests, advocates should aim to socialize their language with relevant Member offices as soon as possible before the submission deadline, be prepared to revise quickly, and provide technical assistance to staff during the drafting phase.

Emerging Tech

The Federal Communications Commission has granted Tesla a waiver to use Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radio technology in a fixed outdoor wireless charging system designed for its upcoming Cybercab robotaxi. The approval, issued February 18, clears an important regulatory hurdle for Tesla's vision of a fully autonomous, hands-free charging experience.

Under standard FCC rules, UWB devices must be handheld and cannot be mounted on fixed outdoor infrastructure. Tesla needed the exception because its wireless charging system relies on a ground-level pad that communicates with a vehicle-mounted transceiver to achieve alignment before inductive power transfer begins. The system works in stages. 

First, the vehicle establishes a Bluetooth connection with the pad, then UWB briefly activates to position the car with high accuracy. Once aligned, the UWB session terminates in under 150 milliseconds. The FCC found the signals are extremely low-power, confined to the 7.7 to 8.3 GHz band, and would not create the type of wide-area communication system the original restrictions were designed to prevent.

The approval came just days after the first production Cybercab rolled off the line at Gigafactory Texas. The two-seat, steering-wheel-free vehicle is designed exclusively for fully autonomous operation at a projected $30,000 price point. While current test units still feature a conventional NACS charge port, Tesla has maintained that the production Cybercab will rely on inductive wireless charging as its primary method.

Steve's take

This FCC waiver is a small regulatory step, but a significant strategic signal. Tesla is building the Cybercab to operate as a fully autonomous unit that can drive, clean, and recharge itself without human intervention. Wireless charging has been the missing piece that makes that vision technically possible.

For the broader EV charging industry, this raises important questions. If autonomous fleets can recharge themselves at proprietary wireless pads, the role of traditional public charging networks could shift considerably. Uber's $100M investment in depot-based charging (discussed above) points in a similar direction with fleet operators building dedicated, closed-loop infrastructure rather than relying on open public networks.

Tesla now needs to prove they can deliver reliable wireless power transfer at scale, with efficiency rates competitive enough to justify the infrastructure cost.

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⚡️Steve and Rob

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