Self-driving yourself to the fridge... Or better yet: self-driving the fridge to yourself. Uber just sold off its self-driving car unit ATG to autonomous vehicle competitor Aurora Innovation (Aurora Carrabis?). But instead of receiving cash in exchange, Uber gets to invest $400M into the combined company. Let's reverse...
- ATG was Uber's precious big bet. Uber's still unprofitable because it pays out most of its bookings to drivers. Self-driving = basically $0 driver costs.
- But it was losing money... Uber says ATG and “other technologies” (like air taxis) have burned through more than $300M this year.
- ....and it was a mess: That included a lawsuit for trade secret theft and a tragic autonomous vehicle test that killed a pedestrian.
Ride what you know... Uber has been doubling down on its core rides and delivery platform, while stepping away from risky moonshots. It just ditched Elevate, its air taxi division. Earlier this year, it offloaded its Jump e-scooters/bikes biz to Lime. Instead: it bought Postmates and launched Uber Reserve for rides.
We have to reset our self-driving expectations... Every year it seems we're just months away from a breakthrough. Last year, Elon Musk told the world that Tesla planned to have 1M autonomous robotaxis on the road in 2020 — spoiler: didn't happen (still 22 days left though!). This week, Volkswagen's CEO said he expects autonomous vehicles to hit the market by 2025 to 2030. Either way, it'll be years before they're ready for primetime.