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BUSINESS Wednesday 9 december 2020
Uber, hard-hit by pandemic, sells its robot-vehicle division

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ and Gaining customers' trust
MICHAEL LIEDTKE is a huge factor, said Dan
AP Business Writers Morgan, vice president of
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Synovus Trust Company.
Uber is selling off its auton- "You have one or two bad
omous vehicles develop- accidents and people are
ment arm as the ride-hail- like, 'I'm not getting into
ing company slims down that thing,'" he said.
after its revenues were Aurora, based in Mountain
pummeled by the corona- View, Calif., is led by former
virus pandemic. Google, Tesla and Uber ex-
Self-driving vehicle tech- ecutives. Aurora also has
nology company Aurora partnerships with delivery
will acquire the employees giant Amazon and auto
and technology behind companies Hyundai and
Uber's Advanced Tech- Kia, among others, but its
nologies Group in an stock partnership with Uber is its
transaction, the companies first official relationship with
said Monday. a ride-hailing company.
Uber will also invest $400 mil- The move will help Uber find
lion into Aurora, and Uber's a quicker path to profitabil-
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi ity, said Steven Fox, founder
will join Aurora's board of and CEO of Fox Advisors.
directors. This March 20, 2020, file photo shows a parking lot full of Uber self-driving Volvos in Pittsburgh. "It accomplishes the best
After the transaction, Au- Associated Press of both worlds for them.
rora will be worth $10 bil- It takes away a big profit
lion and Uber will hold 26% Uber will not have exclusive and reduce the high cost woman in suburban Phoe- drag and keeps them stra-
stake in the company, Au- rights as a ride-hailing com- of paying drivers. nix. tegically well-positioned for
rora CEO Chris Urmson said pany to Aurora's technolo- The company's efforts "There's no doubt they had when they want to move
in an interview. gy, but the two companies around self-driving technol- a pretty rough couple of parts of their network to be
"Our first product will be in will have a "preferred rela- ogy was marred in March years a while back," Urm- autonomous," he said.
trucking and freight, but we tionship," Urmson said. 2018 when one of its auto- son said. The deal means San Fran-
look forward to taking this San Francisco-based Uber mated test vehicles hit and "What's been impressive to cisco-based Uber will be
great team that we have will lose a critical piece of killed a woman, the first me in meeting the team entrusting a key piece of its
and accelerating that its company after the pan- death involving the tech- over the last little while is future to a 3-year-old start-
while continuing working demic cut into its finances nology. The backup Uber just how much the team up co-founded and run by
on light vehicles and ride- by suppressing demand driver involved in the crash has learned, and the te- one of the engineers who
haling, and we'll ultimately for shared rides. Its path to was charged with negli- naciousness, and deter- launched Google's pio-
see our vehicles deploying profitability has often been gent homicide for being mination of the team as neering work in self-driving
on the Uber network," Urm- linked with its plans to de- distracted in the moments they come to market in a cars more than a decade
son said. ploy autonomous vehicles before fatally striking the thoughtful, safe way." ago. q

Another judge blocks Trump's TikTok ban; app still in limbo

WASHINGTON (AP) — A manner by failing to con- and Walmart invest in Tik-
federal judge has blocked sider obvious alternatives." Tok. Oracle would man-
President Donald Trump's Nichols is the second fed- age U.S. user data under
attempts to ban TikTok, eral judge to fully block the arrangement. But a
the latest legal defeat for the Trump administra- federal agency still has to
the administration as it tries tion's economic sanctions review and finalize an ar-
to wrest the popular app against the app as the rangement.
from its Chinese owners. court cases proceed. A government deadline for
The Trump administra- The Trump administration ByteDance to complete
tion had tried to ban the has alleged that TikTok is the deal passed on Friday,
short-form video app from a security threat because and it's not clear what the
smartphone app stores in the Chinese government status of the agreement is.
the U.S. and cut it off from could spy on app users' The Treasury Department,
vital technical services. personal data. TikTok has which chairs the agency
TikTok sued, arguing such denied it's a security threat reviewing the deal, said Fri- The TikTok app logo appears in Tokyo on Sept. 28, 2020.
actions would violate free but said it's still trying to day that the agency "is en- Associated Press
speech and due process work with the administra- gaging with ByteDance to
rights. Judge Carl Nichols tion to resolve its concerns. complete the divestment China. Since taking office While President-elect Joe
of the U.S. District Court in Trump in September gave and other steps necessary in 2017, Trump has waged Biden has said TikTok is a
Washington, D.C., said in his tentative blessing to a to resolve the national se- a trade war with China, concern, it's not clear what
a ruling Monday that the proposal by ByteDance, curity risks arising from the blocked mergers involving his administration will carry
Commerce Department the Chinese company transaction." Chinese companies and on the Trump administra-
"likely overstepped" its use that owns TikTok, meant The Trump administration's stifled the business of Chi- tion's ongoing attempts to
of presidential emergency to resolve U.S. national se- aggressive tactics are nese firms like Huawei, a secure a ban, or increase
powers "and acted in an curity concerns by having part of its latest attempt to maker of phones and tele- the involvement of U.S.
arbitrary and capricious the U.S. companies Oracle counter the influence of com equipment. companies.q