"Travis Kalanick is reportedly starting up a new self-driving vehicle company with "major backing" from Uber, according to The Information. He has reportedly told people he "wants to be more aggressive in rolling out self-driving technology than Waymo," per the report."
"The Uber founder is also considering acquiring Pronto, the autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining sites that was created by his former colleague at the ride-hailing company, Anthony Levandowski."
"In a rare interview in March 2025, Kalanick expressed regret that Uber had abandoned developing its own self-driving cars."
Travis Kalanick, Uber's founder, is establishing a new self-driving vehicle company with significant backing from Uber. He intends to pursue autonomous technology deployment more aggressively than Waymo. Kalanick is considering acquiring Pronto, an autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining operations, founded by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. Previous acquisition discussions regarding Pony AI's U.S. operations ended. Kalanick resigned from Uber in 2017 following workplace harassment and discrimination crises. He originally created Uber's self-driving division in 2015, recruiting Levandowski from Google. Uber faced legal action from Google over alleged trade secret theft, resulting in a settlement. Levandowski was criminally charged and imprisoned, later receiving a presidential pardon. Uber's autonomous division was shut down and sold to Aurora in 2020 following a fatal pedestrian accident in 2018. Kalanick recently expressed regret about abandoning autonomous vehicle development.
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