The American taxi and delivery company Uber has committed to investing over $10 billion, equivalent to over SEK 91 billion, in purchasing thousands of self-driving vehicles and investing in the development companies of these vehicles.
This is reported by the Financial Times, which describes it as Uber trying to move away from its "gig economy"-oriented business model and avoid being outcompeted by robot taxi vehicles.
Over the past year, Uber has signed partnerships with over a dozen companies, including China's Baidu and the US' Rivian, and has unveiled plans for robotaxi vehicles in at least 15 cities by 2026.
The agreements mean that Uber is on track to invest over $2.5 billion in equity and spend over $7.5 billion on robotaxi fleets over the next few years, according to the newspaper's calculations based on analyst estimates and sources with insight into Uber's agreements.
In February, it was reported that Uber would expand its self-driving taxi service to Hong Kong, Madrid, Houston and Zurich, and that the company plans to make self-driving vehicles one of its key growth areas. Uber aims to offer self-driving vehicles in more than ten markets globally by 2026, it said at the time.
Source: News agency Direkt-Di.se
