Ride-hailing giant moving to cut costs after business vaporized during the coronavirus pandemic.
Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm to Aurora Innovation as the ride-hailing company slims down amid a sharp decline in its business due to the. Aurora will acquire the employees and technology behind Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group in an equity transaction, the companies said Monday. Uber will invest $400 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 $10 billion and Uber will hold 26% 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. «For the last five years, our phenomenal team at ATG has been at the forefront of this effort — and in joining forces with Aurora, they are now in pole position to deliver on that promise even faster,» said Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, in a statement. «I’m looking forward to working with Chris, and to bringing the Aurora Driver to the Uber network in the years ahead.» Uber will lose a critical piece of its company after the pandemic cut into its finances by suppressing demand for shared rides.
