Uber abandons effort to develop own self-driving vehicle

Uber has abandoned efforts to develop its own self-driving car, bringing to an end one of the most ambitious attempts to develop a fully autonomous vehicle.

Financial Times reports that the ride-hailing company will instead swap its operations for a minority stake in Aurora, a driverless vehicle start-up backed by Amazon and Sequoia, at a significantly marked-down valuation.

“Uber took an early lead in the race to develop autonomous vehicle technology four years ago, leapfrogging rivals, including Google and Tesla, in pursuit of getting a fleet of self-driving taxis on the road. However, its efforts were marred by tragedy when a woman was killed in an accident involving one of the cars in Tempe, Arizona in 2018, and Uber’s investors have pressed the company to focus on getting its core car-booking business to profitability”, reports the Financial Times.

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