Uber along with Daimler, has announced a new partnership for driverless cars, where Daimler will provide Uber with vehicles to use in their self-driving car network. Joining the likes of Ford and Volvo, who already have vehicles in Uber’s network in various States in the US. According to Daimler, this partnership is a bit different from what Uber has done with Volvo. With Volvo essentially giving Uber these vehicles to do with what they want, Daimler will still own these vehicles, and operate the vehicles. While still using Uber’s technology and ride-sharing services.
This is the start of Uber’s own open self-driving vehicle program, a bit like Waymo. Where car makers can come to Uber and have them add their self-driving software to their cars and use them, instead of needing to buy cars from car makers and make them driverless. This could actually be a huge deal for Uber if it is executed successfully. Travis Kalanick, the founder and CEO of Uber, noted in their blog post today, that his company realized that safety is huge when coming to self-driving cars, and can make a big impact on the market. Kalanick also noted that Uber wouldn’t be able to do it by themselves. And this is why they’ve decided to find partners in car makers like Germany’s Daimler.
Self-driving cars are becoming a pretty big topic in the world of technology, and for good reason. Autonomous vehicles are said to be much more safe than current vehicles. But that’s not the only reason that Uber is interested in autonomous vehicles. Uber believes that the future of self-driving cars is going to be ride-sharing, and they aren’t alone. Waymo also believes that is the future, as well as GM which is why they’ve invested pretty heavily into Lyft in the past few years. Uber’s future actually depends on self-driving cars, as it’s going to allow them to offer up more rides and charge customers less, as they won’t need to pay drivers, since the car is driverless. If you’re interested in the full announcement from Uber on this partnership with Daimler, you can check out the source below.