Uber has killed off its self-driving truck division

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By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 17th August 2018

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

As Uber faces challenges on multiple fronts the company has had to take the hard decision to double down on strategic bets.

Two years after Uber bought self-driving truck developer Otto for $680 million, the ride hailing company has announced that the Uber Advanced Technologies Group, their R&D arm, is shuttering its autonomous truck unit which ran a successful trial early last year. The company remains committed to further developing its self-driving car platform, which killed a pedestrian earlier this year. Uber Freight, a separate service that helps connect shipping companies with drivers, is being spared though.

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“We’ve decided to stop development on our self-driving truck program and move forward exclusively with cars. We recently took the important step of returning to public roads in Pittsburgh, and as we look to continue that momentum, we believe having our entire team’s energy and expertise focused on this effort is the best path forward,” Eric Meyhofer, Head of Uber Advanced Technologies Group, which opened its first dedicated AI lab last year, said in an E-Mailed statement.

As recently as this past March, Uber was hard at work furthering the self-driving truck technology in Arizona, where the vehicles logged thousands of deliveries over the course of months but now all that’s moot.

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In an internal E-Mail, first seen by TechCrunch, Meyhofer says that employees affected by the company’s decision will be pivoted to related autonomous projects, such as the ATG’s efforts to build a new in-house LiDAR package, otherwise they’ll have the option to move to the company’s Pittsburg head office, or accept a redundancy package.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.