Uber in talks with Waymo to include self-driving cars in its network

Uber is trying to improve its services by trying to make the ride more comfortable and easy for the users. Recently, at the Code Conference, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber said that the company is in talks with Waymo. Waymo is a part of Google’s parent company Alphabet. It offers self-driving cars and Uber is trying to include them in its network. It might be too early to reach a conclusion to these talks heading anywhere yet. Although, it might be surprising to see this deal taking off because of the rift between the two companies less than four months back. Khosrowshahi said that “We’d welcome Waymo to add their self-driving cars into our network”.

In-Depth Analysis Of the Partnership

Earlier this year, One of the Uber’s self-driving car was involved in a fatal accident with a pedestrian in Arizona. Uber decided to halt the self-driving cars service in all the cities it was conducting the test. Now, Dara said that they are trying to get the program back on track this summer. He said that “When we are trying to get back on the track, we should be able to get it in a more stable manner. We are in talks with Waymo to include their self-driving cars in our network. If it works out, it will be great or else we will figure out some alternatives”.  When asked by Kara Swisher on why Waymo may want to partner with them, Dara simply said, “Economics. We are the largest ride-sharing network in the world so it will make sense for them to partner with us”.

A few months back, Uber and Waymo were in involved in a legal fight which ended after four days. Uber had to give 0.34% of its equity, roughly $245 million to Waymo. Uber also agreed that it will not incorporate Waymo’s information in its hardware and software.

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Uber’s Issues In Last Few Months

When Dara took charge of Uber as their CEO in August, his prime aim was to improve the conditions of the company which was taking a U-turn in the last six months. #DeleteUberMovement was trending and the company lost 200000 angry passengers. Susan Fowler, ex-employee of the company wrote a blog post on how the culture allowed sexual harassment. For two months, the company had no leader following the lawsuits. But, Dara helped the company get back on his ways by improving the conditions within the company and sealed a $9.6 billion investment from SoftBank and closed the lawsuit with Wyamo.

Verdict

Waymo has declined to comment on the partnership deal with Uber as of now. Interestingly, Dara said that they have been trying other transportation options too. Other than the Uber Pool and bikes, they are looking forward to making transit tickets for San Fransisco’s trains. In another interview, Dara said that the company needs a CFO and to help him in the office.

In the last few months, Dara has carried out his responsibility getting the company back on track. The employees are more happy to work which was not the situation a few months back when the company was accused of many lawsuits. However, they are out of the phase and the company looks good as ever.