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Uber gets a chance to pivot its autonomous strategy
BI Intelligence
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In the aftermath of the resignation of cofounder and CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber has begun to search for a new chief executive while also looking for a chief operating officer and other high-level executives.
As the company looks to secure a place in the nascent autonomous car ecosystem, its new leaders will have a chance to change the direction of Uber’s self-driving car program, an opportunity to pivot they ought to consider.
Thus far, Uber’s autonomous efforts have kept most development in-house. The company has been working on its own systems to retrofit vehicles with self-driving technology, testing vehicles in a number of cities. It’s internal development efforts and tests, though, have faced a number of stumbling blocks.
It has clashed with regulators in California, leading to a temporary stoppages of its tests of cars and trucks in the state.
The company’s autonomous unit is mired in a lawsuit that’s been brought against the ride-hailing company by Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving company. The suit alleges that Uber bought an autonomous trucking startup, Otto, for $680 million, in part to acquire Waymo's intellectual property. Uber has denied these allegations, fired the engineer at the center of the controversy, and is fighting the lawsuit, which is set to go to trial in October.
Its self-driving cars haven’t been performing as well as those of competitors. Uber’s autonomous vehicles required a driver to take over once every 196 miles, compared to once every 5,129 miles for Waymo’s tests, according to data obtained by Recode.
Uber’s main competitor, Lyft, has taken a different tack in approaching the self-driving future. It has partnered with a number of automakers, creating a platform that can be used for ride hailing with autonomous vehicles, rather than developing its own self-driving cars. Uber holds a commanding lead in ride-hailing market share over Lyft, and playing to its existing strengths could lead to a more secure future.
A new CEO wouldn’t be responsible for any past decisions — like the Otto acquisition — and would be able to pivot the company’s self-driving ambitions toward the company’s current business model, but with reduced costs. This would be a safer, lower-variance option as opposed to the high-risk, high-reward strategy the company has pursued in its go-it-alone model thus far — and possibly a better choice for Uber’s new leadership given the issues it has had with its self-driving unit.
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