Uber will invest more than $150 million in order to open an engineering hub and expand its autonomous and AI operations in Toronto, Canada, in an effort to bounce back following recent setbacks.
The investment, according to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, is also meant to bolster Uber’s engineering capabilities, whereas the new office that’s set to open in early 2019 will house hundreds of new employees, boosting the company’s Toronto workforce to more than 500 people.
The engineering office is Uber’s eighth outside the United States and will be used for building tech infrastructure for the company’s products, like ride-hailing and food delivery.
This decision follows Toyota’s recent $500 million investment, as the two companies will work together on developing self-driving vehicles. It’s clear that Uber is looking to move past the Arizona incident in March, where a pedestrian was struck and killed by one of their self-driving SUVs.
Since that crash, Khosrowshahi has been exploring options, looking at partnerships with other companies, as well as the possibility of selling the self-driving business altogether, reports Automotive News. However, this recent investment in Toronto shows that Uber is not done yet with developing its own self-driving tech.
Meanwhile, the self-driving unit is a huge contributor to Uber’s financial losses, which in Q2 of this year stood at $891 million. Even so, the company said it won’t look to raise additional financing for their Toronto investment.
