The self-driving car unit (called ATG or Advanced Technologies Group) of Uber Technologies Inc. has been sold to a startup named Aurora Innovation Inc. The company will also invest a whopping $400 million in the startup that is based in Silicon Valley as part of the deal. Post the end of the deal, the company will likely hold a stake of nearly 26% in the startup.
Uber Technologies Inc. sells its Self-driving Car Unit and partners with Aurora after years of trouble
Mr. Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s Chief Executive, will be joining the company’s BOD. He is now responsible to restructure Uber in the mission to make it a profitable firm. This may mean that the company may cut down on many of its side businesses that did not gain much traction such as flying cars and electric bikes. According to Uber, ATG (along with various other tech programs) experienced a loss of $104 million in the third quarter on revenue of $25 million. While the executives of the company once touted that self-driving cars might save their business, the effort ended up being a financial and legal hurdle.
Aurora Innovation Inc. is based in Silicon Valley and is an autonomous-driving startup. It is headed by Chris Urmson, who has also aided with the launch of Google’s autonomous-driving project.
