Uber on Thursday announced a partnership to deploy more than 20,000 robotaxis over the next six years as demand for driverless cars kicks into high gear.

As part of the partnership, the ride-hailing company is teaming up with Lucid, the electric vehicle maker, and Nuro, an autonomous vehicle startup. Under the agreement, Uber will invest $300 million in Lucid. Nuro will develop the self-driving technology that Lucid will use to supply Uber with robotaxis over the course of the deal and receive a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment.

Lucid stock popped 30% Thursday. Uber shares were marginally higher.

The companies plan to launch the robotaxis in a major U.S. urban hub next year.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Nuro and Lucid on this new robotaxi program, purpose-built just for the Uber platform, to safely bring the magic of autonomous driving to more people across the world,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a statement.

In an interview with CNBC, Lucid interim CEO Marc Winterhoff called the partnership an opportunity for the EV maker to compete in a “completely new” addressable market it has yet to penetrate.

Nuro, which is backed by Google and the SoftBank Vision Fund, will provide “level 4 self-driving system” software for the cars. The technology can drive passengers under normal traffic and weather conditions without a human behind the wheel.

The partnership with Lucid and Nuro follows Uber’s alliance with Alphabet-backed Waymo. The two companies expanded their service to Atlanta and Austin, Texas, earlier this year.

Waymo’s vehicles are also considered Level 4, as defined by SAE Levels of Driving Automation. Tesla sells cars today equipped with Autopilot and FSD Supervised systems that fall into the level 2 category, requiring a human at the wheel. Elon Musk‘s EV company debuted a robotaxi pilot test in Austin in June.

Lucid said the 450-mile range for its Gravity vehicles should help cut costs and charge times while improving accessibility. Winterhoff said the program may eventually include future Lucid vehicles currently in development.

“We’ve been chosen because of our EV technology leadership,” he said.

Testing for the first prototype vehicle is underway on a closed circuit at Nuro’s Las Vegas-based proving grounds. In April, the startup raised $106 million in a funding round from T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Tiger Global and Greylock.

The deal is a “blueprint for a robotaxi program that’s both commercially viable and globally scalable,” Nuro said in a statement to CNBC.

WATCH: Uber has nothing but tailwinds at its back, says Needham’s Bernie McTernan

The value of cryptocurrencies stolen by criminals surged in the first six months of 2025 after a high-profile hack and a wave of physical attacks targeting crypto holders and their relatives.

So far this year, $2.17 billion has been stolen from crypto services — already eclipsing the $1.87 billion of funds stolen from platforms in 2024 — and this is expected to reach $4 billion by the end of 2025, according to a report published Thursday by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

Overall, the combined value of digital tokens stolen from both crypto platforms and individuals hit more than $2.8 billion and is already approaching the $3.4 billion in crypto stolen last year.

The bulk of the funds stolen from services came from February’s cyberattack on Dubai crypto exchange Bybit, which saw North Korea-linked hackers make off with $1.5 billion. It’s estimated to be the largest crypto heist in history.

However, the rise in stolen crypto assets was also driven by a spike in attacks on individual crypto wallets. Personal wallets accounted for over 23% of total thefts, with attackers increasingly turning to physical violence and coercion to access funds, Chainalysis said.

In January, David Balland, a co-founder of crypto wallet firm Ledger, was kidnapped with his wife from their home in central France. Before they were freed, the attackers cut off Balland’s finger and sent footage of it to his fellow co-founder Eric Larcheveque demanding ransom money.

Separately, in May, the father of a crypto entrepreneur was taken in broad daylight by four men wearing ski masks. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of several million euros and cut off one of the man’s fingers. He was freed by police days later.

Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead at Chainalysis, told CNBC that the rise in crypto-related thefts was primarily being driven by increasing crypto adoption and price appreciation.

“Adoption means there are more services and users in the crypto ecosystem, making thefts more common. Price appreciation means that services and individuals in crypto have more USD value to lose, even if the total assets stolen are relatively constant over time,” Jardine said via email.

Jardine suggested that the uptick in attacks on individual crypto holders could relate to the fact that crypto trading services are beefing up their security.

“If services become better at security, malicious actors will potentially move to targeting individual wallet holders and trade off a single large-scale heist in favor of a large number of smaller-scale victimizations,” he said.

Meanwhile, rising wealth accumulated through holdings of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin has resulted in a rise in crypto influencers flaunting their lifestyle on social media platforms.

Jardine stressed it was important not to blame the victims of physical crypto-related attacks, adding that “showy displays of wealth can quite obviously attract the attention of a bad actor when compared to a more modest outward facing lifestyle.”

Roblox announced the start of age-verification technology Thursday for users who want to chat more freely on the social-gaming platform as part of its new “trusted connections” feature.

Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said that the company felt it was the right time to implement age-estimation software to coincide with “features that we really believe are something that should be limited to an older audience — 13 and over.”

The company’s use of age-screening tech, provided by the identity verification company Persona, comes as several states, like Utah, have established age-verification laws requiring app store owners like Apple and Google to verify the age of their users.

Social media companies like Meta, X and Snap contend that app store operators should be tasked with verifying people’s ages, while Apple and Google have argued otherwise.

Roblox’s use of age-estimation tech will help the company “confirm the age of our users and give them more tailored and age-appropriate features,” said Ryan Ebanks, a Roblox principal product manager for social products.

Users over 13 years old will be prompted to use the facial-analysis software to estimate their age and determine whether they can access the new “trusted connections” feature that allows them to engage in private, unfiltered chats with other age-screened users, Ebanks said.

What used to be known as a Roblox user’s “friends” will now be called “connections,” said Ebanks.  

A Roblox user’s “trusted connections” are essentially a subset of their connections that they “know and trust” and can communicate with on the platform without experiencing certain content filters that proactively screen for offensive language deemed inappropriate for children, Ebanks explained.

Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 must use a QR scan or Roblox’s contact importer tool to add other users they know in real life who are over the age of 18 as trusted connections, the company said.

Kaufman said that up until now, all private messages have been filtered to block profanity and things that are “inappropriate for a platform of all ages.”

Roblox believes that by implementing age-screening to access unfiltered chats, the company can “create an opportunity for teens and adults to stay on Roblox and have their open communications happening here rather than going to other platforms,” Kaufman said.  

The company will continue to proactively monitor all conversations on the platform for “critical harms,” he said.

If Roblox users have previously used their ID documentation to verify their age in order to access certain mature games on the platform, they will not have to use the age-estimation technology, Roblox said in a blog post. The the age-estimation software is “optional,” and users “over 13 can still verify their age using a government-issued ID instead, and, in the future, verified parental consent,” the blog post said.

The company also debuted new privacy and well-being tools that will let users see how much time they spend on Roblox, set daily time limits, activate a “do not disturb” mode, and access online status control features.

Roblox said that parents, with their teens’ permission, will also be able to set up linked Roblox accounts allowing them to view their teens’ connections and trusted connections, how much time they spend on Roblox and its various games, and insights on their transactions and spending.

In February, Roblox and Discord were sued over allegations that their respective platforms let online predators discover and connect with underage victims.

Reddit this week also began using age-verification technology from Persona to ensure that its United Kingdom users under the age of 18 would be prevented from viewing certain kinds of mature content to comply with the country’s Online Safety Act.

WATCH: Crypto bills stumble on key procedural hurdle in House of Representatives.