Uber’s self-driving program was in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The company grounded its entire fleet of self-driving cars after a fatal accident involving one of its vehicles in Arizona. It has only just put the cars back on public roads but that too in manual mode. The company has now confirmed that it has shut down its self-driving truck project.
Uber has also been working to bring about the future of the trucking industry. It’s one of the industries that many feel will be able to reap the true benefits of the self-driving revolution. Uber won’t be playing a part in that revolution, though, as a spokesperson for the company has confirmed to TechCrunch that the self-driving truck project has been shut down.
The employees that were working on Uber’s self-driving truck project will now be diverted to its autonomous car projects. The company will also continue to work on its in-house lidar development project. Uber Freight, an on-demand logistics project that the company has been working on remains unaffected by this decision.
Uber Advanced Technologies Group head Eric Meyhofer confirmed in a statement that the company has decided to stop development on its self-driving truck project and will move forward exclusively with cars.
“We recently took the important step of returning to public roads in Pittsburgh, and as we look to continue that momentum, we believe having our entire team’s energy and expertise focused on this effort is the best path forward,” he added.
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