Uber Sells Its Controversial Self Driving Unit To Aurora For $4 Billion

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Uber Sells Its Controversial Self Driving Unit To Aurora For $4 Billion


Uber's self-driving car unit which incorporated Otto, the self-driving trucking start-up founded by Waymo's co-founder Anthony Levandowski was at the heart of its feud with Alphabet. It was also a long term project for Uber founder Travis Kalanick. Uber now, has sold its Advanced Technology Group to self-driving start-up Aurora for $4 billion.



Uber's deal with Aurora values the start-up at $10 billion but it also comes with a few riders. Uber makes an investment of $400 million into the start-up, it gets a 26 per cent stake in the company and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi gets a seat on its board. This deal entails Aurora taking over Uber's self-driving project in its entirety and continuing that work, presumably with Uber being one of the prime customers for the technology.

This is neat inflation of the valuation of Aurora which was previously valued at $7.25 billion over 20 months ago with counting the likes of SoftBank, Denso and Toyota as its investors. It is also backed by Amazon, Hyundai and venture capital biggies like Sequoia and Greylock. Suffice to say, it has a hefty tailwind behind it.

Aurora notably is also a self-driving start-up which was founded by Chris Urmson who was also the leader of Google's self-driving car project which turned into Waymo. He was, ironically, Levandowski's boss. He exited Google in an amicable way, unlike Levandowski who left disgruntled as Urmson was made the head of the project.

SOURCE - https://www.carandbike.com/news/uber-sells-its-controversial-self-driving-unit-to-aurora-for-4-billion-2335592