Uber’s Autonomous Fleet Could Start Using Waymo Vehicles

Uber’s ride-hailing fleet could eventually include self-driving vehicles from Waymo, chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi has revealed.

Speaking at the recent Code Conference, Khosrowshahi showed no bitter feelings towards Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit that sued Uber for the theft of trade secrets last year. In February, the two tech giants reached a settlement, in which Alphabet was awarded 0.3 per cent of Uber, or roughly $245 million in stock.

“I’d welcome Waymo to put cars in our network,” Khosrowshahi said.

Quizzed by Recode’s Kara Swisher on how Uber could convince Waymo to join its network, Khosrowshahi simply said “economics.” Due to the fact that Uber’s ride-sharing network is the world’s largest, it makes sense for Waymo to join the party, he indicated.

Uber continues to work on its own autonomous tech

Speaking more broadly about Uber’s current views on autonomous technologies, the company’s chief executive said that he’d be happy to license Uber’s technology to other companies, The Verge reports.

“Ultimately, I think that we’re not going to look to own the tech ourselves. We’ll license to third parties,” Khosrowshahi said.

For the moment, Uber’s self-driving fleet remains grounded following a fatal accident involving one of its vehicles that was operating on autonomous mode. However, the company intends on bringing its self-driving prototypes back to the road this summer and says it’ll ensure that they are totally safe.