Uber’s Self-Driving Car Quest

For all the attention Nvidia gets for its relentless pace of new business partnerships, it can’t hold a candle to Uber. The ride-hailing giant seems to be on a quest to go into business with anyone who’s ever thought about developing a self-driving car. On Thursday, it announced a robotaxi deal with Rivian , the electric truck maker that is developing autonomous driving software. It’s the fifth self-driving car related announcement Uber has made in the past eight days! Over the past 12 months, Uber has announced more than a dozen self-driving–car partnerships, building on a couple of earlier arrangements with industry leader Waymo and others. Uber now has deals with firms ranging from Momenta, WeRide, PonyAI, Nuro, Baidu, Zoox, Wayve, Hyundai’s Motional, Nvidia, May Mobility and Volkswagen. And that’s not all: We reported on Friday that Uber is backing its cofounder and former CEO Travis Kalanick in a venture with autonomous driving ambitions, among many others.