Uber is done with prospects of a self-driving truck, pivoting its energy toward cars instead. The ride-hailing company's once-huge ambitions for the future of the trucking industry has now been put on seemingly permanent hold.
Uber has decided to shut down its self-driving truck program, according to TechCrunch. A spokesperson for the company has since confirmed the move.
Uber Shuts Down Self-Driving Truck Efforts
Employees who have been working for the truck project will be relocated to Uber's much bigger autonomous car division. The company says it'll resume development on an in-house lidar system. Freight, another one of Uber's projects that aims to connect truck drivers with shipping companies, will be unaffected by the change, the spokesperson confirmed.
"We've decided to stop development on our self-driving truck program and move forward exclusively with cars," said Advanced Technologies Group head Eric Meyhofer. "[W]e believe having our entire team's energy and expertise focused on [self-driving cars] is the best path forward."
Uber vs Waymo
Uber's trucking dreams started when it acquired a self-driving truck startup called Otto in 2016, co-founded by engineer Anthony Levandowski. Not long after the acquisition, Uber entered into a nasty legal battle with Waymo, Google's self-driving car division. Waymo alleged that Levandowski stole technology while he was still working at Google — technology that it believes Uber will allegedly apply to its own projects.
The scuttle was one of 2017's most covered news items in the tech world and ended with a surprise settlement: Uber agreed to give Waymo $245 million worth of private shares at its 2015 valuation, and Waymo said it would make sure Uber's self-driving car technology won't come from its trade secrets. With the legal misstep out of the way, it was expected that Uber would resume its trucking projects.
Then this past March, a self-driving Uber vehicle hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Tempe, Arizona. As a result, Uber halted its test fleet.
Despite the setbacks, Meyhofer says Uber will continue testing its self-driving technology going forward, but it'll focus on passenger applications first.
"I know we're all super proud of what the Trucks team has accomplished, and we continue to see the incredible promise of self-driving technology applied to moving freight across the country. But we believe delivering on self-driving for passenger applications first, and then bringing it to freight applications down the line, is the best path forward."
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