Travis Kalanick, the previous CEO of Uber, made it clear on Wednesday: he believes the corporate’s choice to desert its autonomous driving program was a mistake. Said Kalanick on the Abundance Summit in L.A., “Look, [new management] killed the autonomous automobile challenge we had occurring. At the time, we have been actually solely behind Waymo however most likely catching up, and we have been going to move them in brief order . . . I wasn’t operating the corporate when that occurred, however you understand, you could possibly say, ‘Wish we had an autonomous ride-sharing product proper now. That could be nice.’”
Uber offered its self-driving unit in a reported fireplace sale to the self-driving tech developer Aurora in 2020, three years after Kalanick was pressured to step down. At the time, it made sense; autonomous driving was bleeding money, and Uber had already spent lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on the hassle. Now, Waymo’s self-driving vehicles are tooling across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix and popping up in new markets.
Waymo just lately partnered in Austin with Uber, and Uber is betting its platform will likely be crucial in rising the service. But 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.
