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Uber is holding discussions with Google’s parent company Alphabet to add Google’s self-driving car product, Waymo, to its operations, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Wednesday.
Khosrowshahi said his ride-sharing company was building a stronger relationship with Google, and the two were in talks to add Google’s autonomous vehicles to the Uber platform. The discussions were “about putting them onto our network,” Khosrowshahi said at technology conference in California.
“You build relationships slowly but surely,” Khosrowshahi said. “I have a long relationship with Google, and I think we have a trust level, and we’re having discussions with Waymo. If something happens great, if not we can live with that, too.”
The talks between the two tech giants follow a bitter legal dispute that was settled earlier in 2018, in which Google accused Uber of stealing trade secrets regarding Waymo’s self-driving technology. Uber ended up paying 0.34% in an equity stake to Waymo to settle the case.
Uber’s self-driving car testing has hit major roadblocks in recent months after one of the ride-sharing startup’s autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, in Tempe, Arizona, in March. A software malfunction was reportedly the cause of the fatal incident.
Following the crash, Uber announced it would be pausing its self-driving car operations in all cities where it was testing the vehicles — San Francisco, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Toronto. It has since let its self-driving test licenses lapse in California, while Arizona revoked Uber’s ability to test in the state.
Source: thepointsguy.com