Damaged by an accident in a test car, Uber is reviving with the support of Toyota that brings $ 500 million to the autonomous car.
The Japanese automaker Toyota will invest $ 500 million in the Uber group, with the objective of developing the autonomous vehicle, said Monday the Wall Street Journal citing unidentified sources.
This investment would value the company led by Dara Khosrowshahi to $ 72 billion, according to the US daily, and would intervene while the group of cars with driver (VTC) announced a month ago the resumption of tests in the autonomous vehicle.
Solicited, the company based in San Francisco did not respond to our request for reaction.
The resumption of tests Uber, so far made with Volvo, is however in manual mode, said the group in late July, after a test stop following a fatal accident involving one of his cars mode Autonomous in March in Arizona.
Autonomous … with an attentive driver
Uber explained that during the new tests in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, autonomous vehicles would be equipped with a driver monitoring system “to ensure that operators remain alert behind the wheel.”
The company also indicated that it was abandoning the development of its autonomous truck program to focus exclusively on cars. Uber, to supply this program, has signed an agreement with Volvo for the supply of 24,000 cars, a contract of which we do not know, at this stage, how it can be combined with the new participation of Toyota.
The development division of autonomous vehicles posted losses continuously and, according to the site The Information, a shareholder would have asked Uber to separate from this division.