Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. After all these years, Uber is recognizing its limitations. Uber, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-driving car project that executives once believed was a key to becoming profitable, is handing the autonomous vehicle effort over to a Silicon Valley start-up, the companies said on Monday. Despite being the largest ride-sharing firm in the world, Uber has consistently failed to make a profit since its inception. Uber will sell its self-driving car business to Aurora Innovation, a startup founded by the former head engineer of Google’s pioneering autonomous vehicle project. According to tech site The Verge, Aurora’s self-driving vehicle will eventually operate on the Uber platform, and Uber is investing $400 million in Aurora. Uber's self-driving system includes sensors that view 360 degree around the car. The goal was to eventually offer rides without needing to pay drivers. The company lost around $8.5bn in 2019. Uber is to sell its autonomous driving unit to start-up Aurora, in a deal designed to accelerate the firm’s attempts to become profitable. Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic. SAN RAMON, CALIF. — Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic. “Few technologies hold as much promise to improve people’s lives with safe, accessible, and environmentally friendly transportation as self-driving vehicles. Uber has long been hedging its bets on driverless technology as a way to reach profitability and avoid the high cost of driver acquisition and onboarding as well as regulatory pressure to ensure hourly wage minimums. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Copyright © 2020 NPR. But Uber has been seeking options for its autonomous vehicle division, a cash-burn machine, including more outside investment, as Khosrowshahi refocused on … Uber thought it would have 75,000 autonomous vehicles on the roads this year and be operating driverless taxi services in 13 cities by 2022, according to court documents unsealed last week. Uber is doubling down on ride-hailing and food delivery as it chases that elusive profit. CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: Uber has always aimed big. DANIEL IVES: Yeah, they've put a lot of money. Sign up to the E&T News e-mail to get great stories like this delivered to your inbox every day. Uber returned to testing its current-generation self-driving vehicles on public roads in December 2018, nine months after one struck and killed Elaine Herzberg, who … Uber is getting out of the self-driving game. Uber … Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire. Topics Autonomous Vehicles Uber Self-Driving Cars WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm to Aurora as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic. 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DOMONOSKE: That was Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick at a World Economic Forum event in 2016. The ride-hailing giant has sold its autonomous vehicle research unit to a startup. Despite being the largest ride-sharing firm in the world, Uber has consistently failed to make a profit since its inception. Uber, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-driving car project that executives once believed was a key to becoming profitable, is handing the autonomous vehicle … Aurora will also take control of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) and incorporate its team and technology into its own. Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm to Aurora as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by … By Brett Berk Uber is getting out of the self-driving game. Published Tuesday, December 8, 2020 Uber is to sell its autonomous driving unit to start-up Aurora, in a deal designed to accelerate the firm’s attempts to become profitable. DARA KHOSROWSHAHI: We will have autonomous cars on the road, I believe, within the next 18 months not as a kind of a test case but as a real case out there. Uber Technologies is selling its autonomous driving unit, Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to self-driving car startup Aurora, in a move … It wanted to replace personal car ownership. Self-driving could still be part of Uber's future in years to come through partnerships, but the company won't be developing the technology in-house. It has also faced court battles following a fatal crash in one of its driverless cars that caused the death of a pedestrian and negative press for the firm. Learn more about IET cookies and how to control them, Uber sells autonomous vehicle division to start-up, © 2021 The Institution of Engineering and Technology. It hasn't quite given up on the idea of robotaxis, but it is recognizing it can no longer afford to spend billions of dollars on the technology. Ives says this transaction is all about getting a money-loser off the books. IVES: This was a strategic vision, but ultimately, for it to really play out, they were going to need to sell this business. Tesla almost hits 500,000-car delivery target for 2020 despite pandemic But while self-driving technology has been improving, it's not close to making Uber any money. It's in the billions. Developing self-driving technology is one of the biggest technical challenges of our time. Uber is handing over its troubled self-driving vehicle unit to Amazon-backed Aurora as the tech giant continues to unload unprofitable business divisions and the industry moves away from robotaxis to autonomous trucking and food delivery.As part of the equity deal, Uber will invest $400 million in Aurora and get a 26% stake in the company, an Aurora spokesperson told FreightWaves. At Uber, we believe the future of mobility is increasingly shared, sustainable, and automated. They could not support that level of R&D needed to make this successful. DOMONOSKE: All that expertise is heading to a startup named Aurora that's working on self-driving trucks. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. TRAVIS KALANICK: There's a huge, huge, like, positive impact to society when driverless cars become a thing. SAN RAMON, Calif. — Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles-development arm to Aurora as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic. And after Kalanick was pushed out of Uber because of numerous scandals, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was still optimistic. We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Accuracy and availability may vary. It's a major shift for a company that once saw self-driving technology as a core investment for its future. Aurora will acquire the employees and technology behind Uber's Advanced Technologies Group in an equity transaction, the companies said Monday. Please let us know if you agree to all of these cookies. It already has partnerships with delivery giant Amazon and automakers Hyundai and Kia, among others, but its partnership with Uber is its first official partnership with a ride-hailing company. Aurora believes that the autonomous trucking sector is where its first commercial vehicles will become available, although the new acquisition considerably bolsters its passenger mobility credentials. SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm to Aurora as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic.Aurora will acquire the employees and technology behind Uber's Advanced Technologies Group in an equity transaction, the companies said Monday.Uber will invest $400 million into The decision doesn't completely remove the ride-hailing giant from the development of autonomous vehicles into the mass market but it signals a downplaying of the concept in the core Uber business. Uber Advanced Technologies Group has resumed testing autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, two years after the company scaled back its testing … Uber has abandoned efforts to develop its own self-driving car, bringing to an end one of the most ambitious attempts to develop a fully autonomous vehicle. For the last five years, our phenomenal team at ATG has been at the forefront of this effort—and in joining forces with Aurora, they are now in pole position to deliver on that promise even faster,” Khosrowshahi said. Self-driving cars were meant to be its future. It's never turned a profit, and the pandemic has it bleeding money. Driven: Google, Uber, and the Battle to Build an Autonomous Car Author Alex Davies talks about his new book, Driven, and the the prospects of a truly autonomous vehicle. Uber hasn’t given up on autonomous vehicles altogether — its partnership with Aurora, which will see Aurora’s technology leverage Uber’s ride-hailing network, is evidence of this. It wanted to operate around the globe. Business Dec 10th 2020 edition. DOMONOSKE: Daniel Ives is with Wedbush Securities. Uber, like its competitors Waymo, Zoox, Cruise and others, has been trying and failing to get autonomous cars up and running for years now. Uber’s Advanced Technology Group had been working on developing autonomous vehicles for several years in Pittsburgh, and their AVs were tested on Pittsburgh streets. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) Autonomous vehicle design involves an almost incomprehensible combination of engineering tasks including sensor fusion, ... Uber’s test vehicle was driving 39 … Uber sells ATG to autonomous tech developer Aurora Ride-hailing giant is seen as selling off expensive business units Level 4 autonomy is expected to … Uber Electric Autonomous Vehicle Strategic Analysis. It's a sign the company that always dreamed big is narrowing its focus. The company lost around $8.5bn in 2019. And when it came to self-driving technology, Uber wanted to play a starring role in that revolution and make a fortune off of it. autonomous vehicles uber Uber, like its competitors Waymo, Zoox, Cruise and others, has been trying and failing to get autonomous cars up and running for years now. All rights reserved. Under the new deal, Uber will invest $400m into self-driving vehicles start-up Aurora to hold a 26 per cent stake in the firm and Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join its board of directors. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Spinning off Why is Uber selling its autonomous-vehicle division? The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. NPR's Camila Domonoske reports. Uber started charging fees for autonomous car rides, even though Peduto was under the impression that the rides would be free, and the company withdrew support for a … Our driverless car technology plans a safe path to your destination. After the transaction, Aurora, which is led by former Google, Tesla, and Uber executives, will be worth $10bn. Uber has sold its autonomous vehicle research division to a startup named Aurora. Uber is selling off its driverless car unit - a move that reverses a previous important strategy item to position the company for the future of transportation.. If successful, these vehicles have the potential to make our roads safer and transportation more affordable for everyone. As Uber parks its plans for robotaxis, experts admit the autonomous vehicle challenge is bigger than anticipated. Uber had already started pulling resources away from autonomous R&D as early as 2018 when it ceased development on a proposed line of self-driving trucks. The ride-hailing giant has sold its autonomous vehicle research unit to a startup. Uber isn't getting any cash in exchange. The short answer is that Uber is not yet striving for a world of total autonomy—developing realms of self-driving pistes is the current goal. Hypothesis Test: How can Uber improve the safety of its ride-sharing service? And that research is very expensive. He spoke at Davos in 2018. 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