For the past five years, Uber has been in the process of developing driverless technology. The previous CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick prioritized it as he believed that the technology could be beneficial in cutting off costs. He had launched the driver-less technology subsidiary in 2015 in Pittsburg.
However, the whole program of this developing technology under Uber’s subsidiary Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) fell flat when one of its autonomous vehicles met with a deadly accident in Arizona in 2018. Although reports claimed that there was a human error involved that caused the accident, still the company’s focus shifted for a time being, and the current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was more focused on ride-hailing and food delivery services to make Uber profitable.
In every good business, it is important to know when to take the right decision if things do not turn out as planned. Uber also did the same and recently, its Advanced Technologies Group has been acquired by a new start-up company, Aurora Innovations for around $4 billion. The subsidiary’s value was estimated at around $7.25 billion in April of 2019 when Toyota, SoftBank, and Denso were looking to take a stake in the company.
So, it probably was the right time to sell off an ‘iffy’ unit, and for Aurora, it is also a good deal because they are starting up and being backed by Amazon, South Korean company Hyundai, and Sequoia Capital. Aurora makes sensors and develops software for autonomous cars and is run by veterans in the field of autonomous vehicle technology. Through this deal, the company will also get access to Toyota because of its stakes in Uber.
Collaboration
Uber is not completely giving up the idea of this technology that they have been working on for so long. The company is investing around $400 million in Aurora for a 26% stake in the company. Around 40% of the stakes will go to the employees and investors of Uber. Also, Mr. Dara Khosrowshahi will be a board member of Aurora Innovations.
According to him, there are very few technologies that have so much promise of being incredibly safe, highly accessible, and being environmentally friendly too. The company has worked hard in developing this technology of autonomous vehicles, and now, through this collaboration with Aurora, Uber is hoping to efficiently deliver the promising results of this technology to the people.
Mr. Dara Khosrowshahi is happy to be working with the CEO of Aurora, Chris Urmson, and he is hopeful that in the coming years, Aurora Driver will be joining the Uber network.
ATG’s technology was way ahead of Google and Tesla’s ‘robotaxis’ and autonomous vehicles before the setback of 2018.
Apart from the car crash which costed the life of a woman, Uber’s ATG also faced legal charges from Google’s autonomous technology project Waymo. Waymo sued Uber over allegations citing that it stole Waymo’s technology. These incidents proved to be quite unsettling for the booming technology developers, but for the sake of business growth and profits, Dara Khosrowshahi faced immense pressure to focus on the units that help in its economic growth. Perhaps it was the right decision for Uber to let Aurora acquire ATG now.
Aurora’s Founder
Aurora’s founder and current CEO Chris Urmson is also a pioneer in the self-driving taxi firm Waymo, while one of Aurora’s co-founders, Sterling Anderson has previously worked at Tesla.
Uber also transferred its electric bike-sharing division, Jump to Lime this year.
Lime is a famous micro-mobility company in which Uber had invested. However, Uber transferred its bike-sharing subsidiary to Lime in early 2020 which caused a lot of controversy. Uber had acquired Jump in 2018 as a plan to invest in the individualistic branding of Jump. However, it looks like another plan of Uber did not work out as the company had expected. Hence, the transfer, and further establishes the belief that Uber knows the right time to take the right steps to salvage its business.
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
