Uber makes moves for self-driving technology

NEW YORK

Uber on Thursday announced the acquisition of tech company Otto and a partnership with Volvo, making two major moves toward self-driving technology.

Otto, a 90-plus person startup company that focuses on self-driving trucks, will combine its efforts with Uber for personal transportation in the California cities of San Francisco and Palo Alto, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"In order to provide digital services in the physical world, we must build sophisticated logistics, artificial intelligence and robotics systems that serve and elevate humanity," Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick said in a statement.

Kalanick added that Anthony Levandowski, Otto’s co-founder, will report directly to him.

The value of the acquisition was undisclosed but Kalanick said Uber now has "one of the strongest autonomous engineering groups in the world."

Levandowski and Otto’s other co-founder, Lior Ron, previously on Google's self-driving and mapping efforts, while many former employees of Google joined Otto since it was established in January.

The self-driving ambitions of Uber would not only pioneer the company in the ride-hailing industry but also lessen its dependence on human drivers, which has caused financial and legal hurdles for the California-based firm.

On top of data derived from 1.2 billion miles on roads of various countries every month, Uber also has an advanced technologies center in Pittsburgh where researchers are hired from Google and Carnegie Mellon University.

In addition to acquiring Otto, Uber also established a partnership with Swedish carmaker Volvo.

“Volvo has consistently been a leader when it comes to safety. And partnership is crucial to our self-driving strategy because Uber has no experience making cars," Kalanick said in the statement.

"By combining Uber’s self-driving technology with Volvo’s state-of-the art vehicles and safety technology, we’ll get to the future faster than going it alone," he added.

Uber users in Pittsburg will be able to hail 100 self-driving Volvo SUVs before the end of the year. As part of the test-drive process, there will be human drivers in the cars to assist during trips. Uber and Volvo are reportedly investing a combined $300 million in the project.