The driving service broker Uber and the Google sister company Waymo want to cooperate. It’s about self-driving cars.
Robotaxis from Google’s sister company Waymo will also be available in the United States from the Uber ride-hailing service. The cooperation should begin later this year in the city of Phoenix, the companies announced on Tuesday. How many self-driving cars will come onto the Uber platform has not been announced. The cars should also remain bookable via Waymo’s own app. A few years ago there was a heated argument between the two companies.
Waymo grew out of Google’s robotic car program. Former Uber boss Travis Kalanick was so concerned about the cost advantages that self-driving cars could have compared to human drivers that he wanted to develop his own robotic taxis. Kalanick put the project in the hands of former Google engineer Anthony Lewandowski. The Internet group accused Lewandowski of having taken confidential information. The companies agreed out of court, Lewandowski was convicted – and pardoned by then US President Donald Trump on the last day in office.
Uber ditched its own development of self-driving cars in late 2020. Previously, a test vehicle from Uber caused the only known fatality involving a robot car. During a test drive in the evening, it caught a woman crossing the street. She pushed a bike with plastic bags on the handlebars next to her – and the situation overwhelmed the Uber software.
Getting self-driving cars into widespread use, meanwhile, is taking much longer than expected. Waymo and Cruise, which belongs to the car giant General Motors, seem to be the furthest along. To a limited extent, they operate robotaxi services in San Francisco, sometimes even without a safety driver behind the wheel. Waymo recently phased out Chrysler minivans with hybrid drives and is now relying on fully converted electric cars from Jaguar.
Source: Stern
