Travis Kalanick, the previous CEO of Uber, made it clear on Wednesday: he believes the corporate’s determination to desert its autonomous driving program was a mistake. Stated Kalanick on the Abundance Summit in L.A., “Look, [new management] killed the autonomous automobile mission we had happening. On the time, we had been actually solely behind Waymo however most likely catching up, and we had been going to go them in brief order . . . I wasn’t operating the corporate when that occurred, however you recognize, you could possibly say, ‘Want we had an autonomous ride-sharing product proper now. That might be nice.’”
Uber bought its self-driving unit in a reported hearth sale to the self-driving tech developer Aurora in 2020, three years after Kalanick was pressured to step down. On the time, it made sense; autonomous driving was bleeding money, and Uber had already spent a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} on the hassle. Now, Waymo’s self-driving vehicles are tooling across the Bay Space, Los Angeles, Phoenix and popping up in new markets.
Waymo lately partnered in Austin with Uber, and Uber is betting its platform will probably be essential in rising the service. However enterprise is enterprise, and partnerships falter. If Waymo decides it doesn’t want a intermediary, Uber, as soon as the way forward for transportation, may discover itself caught in reverse.
