Uber abandons dreams of self-driving domination, sells self-driving unit
Uber is pumping $400 million into a startup led by a Google self-driving veteran. …
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Aurora, one of the nation’s leading self-driving startups, will become the new owner of Uber’s self-driving division, Aurora announced on Monday. In addition to turning over Uber’s self-driving division, known as the Uber Advanced Technology Group (ATG), Uber will also pump $400 million into Aurora.
In exchange, Uber will get a minority stake in Aurora and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will get a seat on Aurora’s board.
The deal allows Uber to unload a self-driving division that has struggled to regain its footing ever since an Uber ATG vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in March 2018. Uber shut down its on-road testing for several months after that incident, and the program has faced lingering public skepticism ever since. It’s not clear if the deal will lead to layoffs at Uber ATG.
The deal lets Aurora hedge its bets
Aurora CEO Chris Urmson co-founded Aurora in 2016 after leaving his role as the head of Google’s self-driving project. He assembled a “dream team” along with former leaders at Tesla and Uber’s self-driving projects. The trio built a company that’s widely respected for its engineering rigor—though so far the company hasn’t released much information about the performance of its self-driving technology.
Aurora’s original business model was to license its self-driving technology to automakers. But in recent years, more and more OEMs have taken stakes in other self-driving companies, leaving Aurora with few potential partners in
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