Uber has signed a deal with Volvo for 24,000 XC90 sport-utility vehicles for delivery between 2019 and 2021. With this deal—worth about $ 1 billion—Uber is essentially betting the company on a self-driving future.
It’s a big, risky bet for Uber, which lost $ 2.8 billion in 2016 and is locked in a legal battle with Waymo over self-driving technology that could cost it more than $ 1 billion.
When Recode’s Johana Bhuiyan talked to company insiders about Uber’s self-driving car project in March, she found that “many think it is at a technological standstill and plagued by significant internal tension.” Around the same time, Uber temporarily suspended public testing of its driverless cars after one of its cars collided with another car and flipped over on its side. The company says another driver was at fault in the incident, and it has since resumed testing.