Uber Shutters Self-Driving Truck Effort

Uber announced Monday that it’s abandoning efforts to develop self-driving trucks.

“We believe having our entire team’s energy and expertise focused on (self-driving cars) is the best path forward,” Eric Meyhofer, head of Uber Advanced Technologies Group, told Reuters.

Uber’s investment in autonomous trucks included the purchase of Otto in 2016, which impressed when its self-driving tech powered a Budweiser beer truck along a 120-mile route in Colorado. Controversy arose, however, when Otto’s founder was accused of stealing trade secrets from his former employer, Alphabet’s self-driving division Waymo. Uber eventually settled out of court with Waymo.

Uber Freight, a business unit that helps truck drivers connect with shipping companies, will continue to operate. Through the app, truck drivers can find nearby hauling jobs.

Uber has tested self-driving car programs in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. In March, a self-driving Uber car was involved in a fatal accident in Arizona, which caused Uber to pause its autonomous vehicle operations. Last week the company put its self-driving cars back into operation in Pittsburgh.

 

[Ulmo]

When Uber had to handle retraining a bunch of Social Justice Warriors to learn how to do business for the first time in their lives, they fell out of favor with engineers (probably all fired) and businessmen (probably all fired). It makes sense that they're refocusing all their efforts on the one type of vehicle that all kids experienced and have the least bad chance of figuring out (passenger cars). I consider this a good thing for the taxi business, since a less incompetent Uber will give better competition to my preferred taxi provider at the moment, Lyft, and eventually new competitors. Fertile ground is good!