Uber eyes self-driving autos

Uber is increasingly grappling with competition from self-driving taxi services like Waymo. Now the ride-hailing giant is taking more action to deal with that threat.

- MIKE ISAAC

Uber is in talks with Travis Kalanick, the company’s co-founder who was forced out in a boardroom coup eight years ago this month, to help fund his acquisition of the US subsidiary of a Chinese autonomous vehicle company, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The company, Pony.ai, was founded in Silicon Valley in 2016 but has its main presence in China, and has permits to operate robot taxis and trucks in the United States and China.

The talks are preliminary, said the people, who were not authorised to speak about the confidential conversations. Mr Kalanick will run Pony if the deal is completed, they said. It is unclear what role, if any, Uber would take in Pony as an investor.

Financial details of the potential transaction could not be determined. Pony went public last year in the United States, raising $260 million in a share sale. Its market capitalisation stands at around $4.5 billion.

If the deal goes through, Mr Kalanick, 48, will remain in his day job running CloudKitchens, a virtual restaurant start-up that he founded after leaving Uber in 2017. He would also work more closely with Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over as Uber’s CEO after Mr Kalanick’s ouster.