A consortium including telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund is in advanced talks to invest at least $1bn in a subsidiary of US-based ride hailing service Uber, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The group is in discussions to acquire a minority stake in Uber’s autonomous driving technology unit at a valuation of between $5bn and $10bn, people familiar with the negotiations told the WSJ. Carmaker Toyota is also part of the consortium, sources told Reuters.
Uber’s self-driving car division has been operational since 2015 but its efforts have run into numerous issues and the unit has reportedly been losing $20m a month without completing a commercial product.
The company suspended testing in March 2018 after one of its cars killed a pedestrian, and it cancelled its self-driving truck research division in July 2018 having settled a lawsuit with internet technology group Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, Waymo, earlier in the year.
Uber as a whole made a reported loss of $3.3bn in 2018, but if its bet on the technology pays off it would be able to run a theoretically more efficient service without worrying about human drivers taking a cut.
SoftBank and Toyota are both among Uber’s existing investors, suggesting the rest of the consortium could be drawn from a group that also includes internet company Baidu, which is conducting its own research in the field, and diversified software provider Microsoft.
Waymo itself has begun pursuing external funding, but Uber is preparing an initial public offering and would be looking for a way to cut expenses in the run up to a flotation.
