Oro Mobility, Hertz’s fleet-management business, has secured an $80 million strategic equity investment to buy and operate vehicles for rideshare and robotaxi networks. The company handles the work around the driving technology—vehicle ownership, dispatch, maintenance, charging and cleaning—while mobility platforms supply rider demand. Hertz said Cohen Private Ventures and funds affiliated with Certares Opportunities and Knighthead Capital Management joined the financing, which sets Oro up as a standalone company while Hertz retains majority economic ownership.
Oro operates about 45,000 vehicles across rideshare rentals, driver-led fleet management and autonomous-vehicle fleet management, according to Hertz. In the established part of the business, drivers rent vehicles from Oro or the company supplies cars and employees to operate them for a platform. The autonomous line is earlier: Oro has agreed to manage Uber’s planned fleet of Lucid vehicles equipped with Nuro’s self-driving system, beginning in San Francisco.
That Uber work gives Oro a bridge from today’s human-driven fleets to robotaxis. Axios reported in July that Hertz was placing 1,000 employees in Hertz cars for Uber. Hertz described the program as a way to practice dispatch, track vehicles and safety, and tune cleaning and charging schedules before replacing drivers with autonomous systems.
New capital will pay for vehicles, operating infrastructure, technology, talent and partnerships across all three business lines, Hertz said. Axios added that Oro plans to purchase vehicles for both human-driven and robotaxi fleets and build depots and charging infrastructure. This isn’t a software-only bet: Oro needs enough cars, real estate and electrical capacity to keep fleets in service.
Oro starts with assets a new fleet operator would otherwise have to assemble. Axios reported in July that Hertz had more than 11,000 locations in 160 countries, 2,700 installed electric-vehicle chargers and a rental fleet of more than 500,000 cars valued above $12 billion. Hertz will remain Oro’s fleet and corporate-services partner, giving the standalone business continued access to that operating base.
The inheritance cuts both ways. Axios said Hertz’s earlier push into electric rentals cost it nearly $2 billion and ended with the sale of 30,000 vehicles after repair costs rose and resale values fell. That history gives Oro experience with charging and maintaining electric fleets. Its first disclosed autonomous program remains a plan, however: Uber’s Lucid-Nuro fleet is expected to begin in San Francisco before expanding to other markets.