{
  "id": 17903,
  "title": "Uber is building an autonomous vehicle empire, and here’s every company it’s using to do it",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/01/uber-is-building-an-autonomous-vehicle-empire-and-heres-every-company",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-01T15:05:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCrunch",
    "slug": "techcrunch",
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/01/ubers-autonomous-vehicle-deal-tracker/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the past two years, Uber has formed alliances with over 30 autonomous vehicle companies and made strategic investments. The company initially built its own AV technology under Travis Kalanick's leadership, creating Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) in 2014 and acquiring Otto, a self-driving truck firm, in 2015. However, progress halted due to a trade secrets lawsuit from Waymo, Kalanick's resignation in 2017, and a fatal crash in 2018 involving a self-driving Volvo XC90.\n\nAfter Uber pivoted away from autonomous vehicles, it divested Uber ATG to Aurora, Jump, Lime, and Joby Aviation in 2020 while retaining equity stakes. In 2024, Uber resumed AV partnerships. It has been linked to Aurora since 2020, owning a 19.7% stake in the autonomous trucking company as of April 2025. Uber also collaborated with Avomo, an autonomous fleet operator, handling fleet services for Waymo-Uber in Austin and robotaxi services in Madrid.\n\nIn October 2024, Uber partnered with Avride, a Yandex spinout, to introduce sidewalk delivery robots and autonomous vehicles for Uber Eats and ride-hailing. By the end of 2025, Avride robotaxis were available on the Uber app in Dallas. Uber also signed a deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu to deploy Apollo Go autonomous vehicles under its platform in various markets outside the U.S. and mainland China, with tests set to begin in Asia and the Middle East in 2025.",
  "summary": "Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — about 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years. Here's the list and the latest on the partnerships.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}