2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
Taxi competitor Uber wants to develop self-driving cars. To this end, the start-up wants to cooperate with a US university and found a center for technology.
The controversial driving service broker Uber wants to help develop self-driving cars. The start-up, which has several billion dollars in the bank, is cooperating with the US University of Carnegie Mellon. It should be about map services as well as technologies for more security and autonomous driving, announced Uber in a blog post.
Almost at the same time, on Tuesday night, a report about a possible rivalry with Google caused a stir. The internet giant who is also a major investor in Uberis developing its own service to broker rides, reported financial service Bloomberg. The service may be linked to the Google self-driving car project. Google manager David Drummond had informed the Uber board of directors about this prospect, it said, citing people who had been informed.
Google participates in Uber
Uber managers have also seen screenshots of a current ride-sharing app from Google that is used by employees of the group to drive to work together, Bloomberg wrote. Google responded to the report with an evasive tweet saying Uber and rival Lyft were also doing pretty well. "We use them all the time."
The internet giant's venture capital arm had already invested nearly $ 260 million in Uber in the summer of 2013. Google's chief legal counsel Drummond then moved to the board of directors of Uber, the body that oversees management and determines strategy. The financial service, which is usually very well informed, said that it was now being discussed whether Drummond would be advised to withdraw.
A report in the "Wall Street Journal" seemed to take some wind out of the sails of the Bloomberg story shortly afterwards. It said there that the internal Google app had been tested by a developer and was not linked to the self-driving car project. Also there, citing unspecified, informed people, Drummond would say goodbye himself to Uber in the event of a conflict of interest.
Advanced Technology Center planned
The situation reminded many industry watchers of the controversy between Apple and Google over the iPhone and the Android operating system. The then Google boss Eric Schmidt was a member of the Apple board of directors and was one of the first to be presented with the iPhone at launch in 2007. When Google developed the Android system in a similar direction a little later, Apple founder Steve Jobs felt betrayed. Schmidt left Apple's board of directors.
Uber is working with Carnegie Mellon University on its technology plans. That shouldn't be a coincidence. This is where the current head of the Google project for self-driving cars, "Best of Skoda", comes from
Christopher Urmson. The driving service broker also wants to cooperate with the local robotics center and finance research. As part of the cooperation, Uber also wants to establish a "Center for Advanced Technologies". Head and co-founder Travis Kalanick had already announced last year that Uber could rely on self-driving cars in the future. At that time, however, major investor Google was generally seen as a potential partner for this.
Google has been working on technologies for self-driving vehicles for several years and last year presented the first car from its own development. At the same time, classic car manufacturers such as Daimler and Audi are also setting the pace with autonomous driving. The expectation is that self-driving vehicles could be regularly on the road by 2020. Uber is at a clinch with the taxi industry and authorities around the world. You accuse the San Francisco start-up of unfair competition. (dpa)
