Uber commits over $10b to autonomous vehicles

The Financial Times reported that Uber has committed more than US$10 billion to buy thousands of autonomous vehicles.

The move is aimed at helping the company avoid disruption from robotaxis.

Uber has long relied on drivers rather than owning fleets.

The company plans to roll out robotaxi services in at least 28 cities by 2028, subject to technological progress and regulatory approvals.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Uber moved away from building self-driving technology in-house. It sold its capital-intensive self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to Aurora Innovation, a self-driving technology company 1.
Financial strain helped drive the decision. ATG was burning roughly US$500 million a year 1. Uber also said ATG and “other technologies” posted a net loss of US$303 million in the nine months that ended Sept. 30, 2020 2.
Uber later rolled out Uber Autonomous Solutions. The program offers infrastructure, user experience, and fleet operations services to autonomous-vehicle partners such as Nuro, a startup that builds autonomous delivery vehicles, and Wayve, a UK self-driving software company 3.

Building and rolling out self-driving vehicles has taken longer and cost more than many companies expected. That shift has pushed firms toward partnerships and tighter specialization rather than trying to build every piece internally 1.
Uber can use its rider network and go-to-market tools while leaving most development work to autonomous-vehicle companies. Its deal with Aurora includes a plan for Aurora’s self-driving vehicles to launch on Uber’s network when they are released 1, 3.
Uber’s driver base still matters in the near term. Human drivers are needed until fully driverless vehicles run at scale, and some industry commentary says the changeover could take many years or decades 4.