SoylentNews

MostCynical [soylentnews.org] writes:

the Sydney Morning Herald [smh.com.au] and Bloomberg [bloomberg.com] report that Uber has sold its self-driving car unit to Aurora, its former rival in self-driving car development.

Aurora will acquire the employees and technology behind Uber's Advanced Technologies Group in an equity transaction, the companies said on Monday (US time).

Uber will invest $US400 million ($539 million) into Aurora, and Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Aurora's board of directors, the companies said.

After the transaction, Aurora will be worth $US10 billion and Uber will hold 26 per cent stake in the company, said Chris Urmson, CEO of Aurora, in an interview.

“Our first product will be in trucking and freight, but we look forward to taking this great team that we have and accelerating that while continuing working on light vehicles and ride-haling, and we'll ultimately see our vehicles deploying on the Uber network,” Urmson said.

Uber will not have exclusive rights as a ride-hailing company to Aurora's technology, but the two companies will have a “preferred relationship,” Urmson said.

Uber's revenues have been pummelled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Original Submission