Uber is closing its
self-driving trucks business as it centers its autonomous development efforts on cars.
Uber recently re-started its autonomous car program in Pittsburgh, though running in manual mode with
drivers, following the fatal accident in Arizona involving a self-driving Uber car that hit a pedestrian.
“We’ve decided to stop development on our self-driving truck program and
move forward exclusively with cars,” said Eric Meyhofer, head of Uber Advanced Technologies Group, in an email to the AI & IoT Daily. “We recently took the important step of returning
to public roads in Pittsburgh, and as we look to continue that momentum, we believe having our entire team’s energy and expertise focused on this effort is the best path
forward.”
Uber Freight, the freight logistics business, is not affected by the change, according to the company. Uber Freight started with three regions in 2017 and has since
expanded nationwide.
Uber is expected to transfer employees from the self-driving truck unit to other self-driving technology work inside the company. Uber also plans to continue in-house
development of LiDAR technology.
Uber’s self-driving trucks originated from Otto, a 90-person technology startup Uber acquired in 2016 for about $680 million.