Uber's self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, to be acquired by rival Aurora Innovation in a deal valuing ATG at $4B; source: Aurora now valued at $10B
Uber exits the capital-intensive race to build its own self-driving stack, converting an internal cost center into a $4B stake in Aurora and a partner relationship instead of a competitor program.
Aurora absorbs ATG's engineering talent and technology at a $10B company valuation, doubling down on autonomy as its core business.
Second-order effects
Uber's pivot from building autonomy to licensing it reshapes its ride-hailing economics: per the later coverage, Uber becomes an Aurora deployment partner in taxis rather than a stack developer, shifting AV spend off its balance sheet.
Rival AV developers lose a deep-pocketed in-house competitor at Uber while Aurora's consolidation — backed earlier by Amazon and Sequoia — raises the bar for funding rounds across the autonomous vehicle startup field.
Third-order effects
The deal previews the industry structure that held through Aurora's 2021 public listing: autonomy consolidating into a few well-capitalized specialists that license to mobility and trucking operators, rather than every platform company building its own stack.
If the pattern holds, ride-hailing and trucking companies increasingly become customers and distribution channels for AV technology firms, with capital markets (SPACs among them) setting the pace of consolidation.
The trend: Autonomous vehicle development is consolidating from platform companies building in-house stacks to specialized firms like Aurora that acquire the programs and license the technology back to operators.
That Uber is giving up on self-driving should come as a surprise to no one esp because Prop 22 means they don't need it anymore. https://twitter.com/...
@mcwm
Mike Murphy on x
there was a time not too long ago where execs at Uber called figuring out autonomy as “existential” to the company's long-term future now it's selling its research to the man who ran Google's self-driving car project before it was called Waymo https://www.protocol.com/...
@kateconger
O...K on x
The end of an era! In 2019, ATG was valued at $7.25 billion. Now, Uber is investing $400 million in Aurora to shift self-driving off its balance sheet. Story w/ @cademetz https://www.nytimes.com/...
@econ_marshall
Marshall Steinbaum on x
If it had been clear from the beginning that all this is is the world's biggest staffing company whose only innovation is lower labor standards than everyone else, would economists would have been as boosterish? https://twitter.com/...
@silvermanjacob
Jacob Silverman on x
tech writers hyped self-driving cars so much in the last decade, especially Uber's, that this might escape notice https://www.nytimes.com/...
@sarahoconnor_
Sarah O'Connor on x
Uber has abandoned its own self-driving car project. Another nail in the coffin for the Uber bull argument on how they'll become profitable. Khosrowshahi's vision for the future is a bit more mundane, & involves low-paid humans doing things for you... https://www.ft.com/... https…
@stevekovach
Steve Kovach on x
Uber bails on self-driving cars https://www.cnbc.com/...
@puiwingtam
Pui-Wing Tam on x
How much did Uber spend on its self-driving car efforts over the years? Stratospheric answers only. @CadeMetz @kateconger https://www.nytimes.com/...
@obrien
Chris O'Brien on x
The business case for self-driving cars, in general, remains tenuous at best. Who would buy them? Probably not private owners. Hobbyists and the super rich? Sure.
@dhh
@dhh on x
So Uber's main business is in the toilet, will remain there for the foreseeable future, and now they've sold off the promised land of a self-driving and profitable future. What a dumpster fire. https://www.theverge.com/...
@obrien
Chris O'Brien on x
What does the Uber business model look like when it's running a massive fleet of self-driving cars? The capital expenditures would crush a company that can't even turn a profit running an asset-free business.
@chrmanning
Christopher Manning on x
Looking back on the hype, VC funding, and huge genuine progress in AI, ML, and autonomous vehicles in the 2010s, I think this will come to be seen as an inflection point: Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing off Its Self-Driving Car Project https://www.nytimes.com/...
@ldrogen
Leigh Drogen on x
Uber exiting driverless certainly isn't something anyone saw coming a few years ago, wow, how the scope of that business has narrowed https://twitter.com/...
@caseyjohnston
Casey Johnston on x
damn you didn't even have to wait 20 years https://www.nytimes.com/...
@emanuelmaiberg
@emanuelmaiberg on x
it's good to stop pretending https://twitter.com/...
@shiraovide
Shira Ovide on x
Can only giant rich companies like Google afford to work on driverless cars? (Even Aurora is working on big rig trucks, not cars.) https://twitter.com/...
@jacknicas
Jack Nicas on x
I'm starting to think that Anthony Levandowski was a bad hire. https://twitter.com/...
@xor
Parker Higgins on x
I find myself thinking surprisingly often of the 2014 take that “if tech companies can make self-driving cars, surely they can make a Content ID for online harassment” https://twitter.com/...
@jbursz
Jessica Bursztynsky on x
NEW: Uber's self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, is being acquired by its start-up competitor Aurora Innovation. The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, values ATG at approximately $4 billion. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@brianmcc
Brian McCullough on x
Honestly? Why has it taken this long? Also... this would be a bearish thing if you were a long, right? Cause Travis sold you on one app for transport... https://www.techmeme.com/...
@can
Can Duruk on x
For a self-driving unit, this whole ATG thing required a lot of hand holding over the years. https://twitter.com/...