Uber Sells Self-Driving Unit To Silicon Valley Startup

Ride-hailing giant, Uber Technologies Inc. has announced the sale of its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) to another self-driving company called Aurora Innovation Inc.

Aurora is a ride-hailing startup founded in 2017 by Chris Urmson, a former lead engineer for Google’s self-driving project.

Aurora develops a wide range of self-driving vehicles and is currently working with Uber to roll out self driving vehicles to cater for Uber’s food delivery network.

The deal will value Aurora at $10 billion while Uber secures 26% ownership stake for the company in exchange for investing $400 billion.

Dara Khosrowshahi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Uber said in a statement that the deal will advance the company’s path towards profitability

“The sale of the unit to Aurora will boost Uber’s profitability goals by the end of the year. This essentially advances our path to profitability”, he emphasised.

The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2021 and guarantees that when Aurora rolls out its self-driving vehicles, they’ll launch on Uber’s network.

Moreover, Dara Khosrowshahi will have a board seat at Aurora as part of the deal.

On the other hand, Aurora stands to gain hundreds of engineers and access to one of the world’s largest ride hailing platforms by adding Uber’s self-driving unit.