Uber Looks to Partner With Other Self-Driving Companies, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Says

Uber self-driving unit is looking to partner with other companies working on autonomous driving, the company's chief executive officer said on Wednesday.

"Our view is that we will partner with other autonomous providers over a period of time," Dara Khosrowshahi said at the RBC Capital Markets conference when asked about reports Uber is looking to sell its autonomous driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG).

He said Uber could offer competitors, who have poured billions of dollars into the development of robotaxis, a large customer base and valuable data on profitable routes generated through its ride-hailing business.

Reuters last week reported that Uber is in ongoing talks to sell its ATG unit to self-driving car startup Aurora, as Uber was seeking options for the costly unit, with fully automated vehicles still several years away.

Khosrowshahi declined to directly comment on the reports, but said Uber was looking to create an open network and fund ATG both internally and externally.

"We're going to be pursuing all paths forward here," the CEO said.

Khosrowshahi in May said Uber was open to using technology from competitors in the industry.

ATG has received roughly $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,400 crores) in funding from external investors, including Toyota and Softbank, and was valued at $7.25 billion (roughly Rs. 53,800 crores) earlier this year.

Khosrowshahi said fully automated vehicles that no longer require any human supervision were still ten to 15 years away and their progress dependent on local regulation.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

Will Apple Silicon Lead to Affordable MacBooks in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.