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Is Uber looking to Waymo to get it back on the road to self-driving cars?
After one of Uber's self-driving cars was involved in a fatal crash with a pedestrian in Arizona in April, the ride-hailing service temporarily halted its self-driving operations in all cities where it's been testing its vehicles.
Now Khosrowshahi says he's looking to an industry rival to get Uber's program back on the road by this summer.
"When we get back on the road, we have to be absolutely satisfied we're getting back on the road it in the safest manner possible," Khosrowshahi said Wednesday during an on-stage interview at Recode's Code Conference, which is being held this week in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. 'We're having conversations with Waymo about putting their cars on our network. If something happens, great. If not, we can live with that, too."
"I'd welcome Waymo to put cars in our network," he said, calling the company an "incredible technology provider."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 01 2018, @02:46PM (7 children)
How could Waymo possibly benefit from tainting itself with Uber?
Isn't Waymo already a direct competitor to Uber?
Isn't Waymo already what Uber dreams of becomming? A ride service without pesky, annoying human drivers? And that drives safely instead of paying attention to the smartphone?
It seems that Waymo has, at considerable cost, developed, what Uber dreams of having.
The role of government is make sure that when someone wants what someone else has built, that they can actually get access to it, or even take it over.
The roll of police is to be cream filled and covered with sprinkles.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 01 2018, @02:47PM (1 child)
Errr . . . proofreading . . .
> How could Waymo possibly benefit from
taintingitself with Uber?How could Waymo possibly benefit from associating itself with Uber?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday June 01 2018, @03:37PM
Ass, Taint... whatever.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday June 01 2018, @03:51PM (1 child)
Uber already has name recognition and infrastructure for the taxi market segment. Self driving cars are so expensive that they will be targeting taxi applications to keep the cars on the road more hours a day, so Uber does have something to provide Waymo.
If Waymo had a product ready to sell they could avoid the partnership and just sell/lease vehicles to Uber. However currently one of the difficulties is just getting miles of experience, so perhaps a partnership isn't too bad: Waymo could start testing with real Uber clients and gain experience from those deliveries.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 01 2018, @04:25PM
Waymo would have to scale out their business in any Uber partnership.
If doing so, Waymo might find it to be advantageous to do so under their own name. In their own vehicles. With their own app to page the service.
The difficulty is all on Waymo, not Uber. Waymo has to continue to improve their technology. Waymo has to carefully put this into locations that are well mapped and that their service can be adapted for.
It seems all Uber does is provide a tainted brand name. Is there more that I don't understand?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @05:23PM (2 children)
So Uber hires away a key person from Waymo and that's not enough to get their program up to speed. Now they want to take advantage of the whole Waymo team...? Sounds like, if you can't beat them, join them.
I'm guessing Waymo isn't going to give them the time of day. But it will be interesting to see if there is any dialog.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 01 2018, @05:41PM (1 child)
Yesterday:
Waymo to get more than 60,000 cars from Fiat Chrysler for robotaxis [reuters.com]
Today:
Uber driver fatally shoots passenger on Denver interstate, police say [usatoday.com]
Goog/Waymo can afford not to talk to Uber.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 01 2018, @07:41PM
Google/Waymo can prop up and leverage Lyft to kill Uber fairly easily.
Not a tear will be shed.