Mobility giant Uber is open to partnering with its ousted founder Travis Kalanick in his new autonomous vehicle venture, chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi told ET in an interview, marking the first public acknowledgment from the company that it may work with its former chief again.
“We’re already working with Travis in the restaurant space, and I have enormous respect for him—he’s our founder. If opportunities emerge in other areas, we’d certainly look at them seriously because there are very few entrepreneurs I trust as much,” Khosrowshahi said during his five-day India visit last week.
The comments come amid renewed momentum in the autonomous driving space, with companies such as Waymo, Tesla and Zoox accelerating commercial deployments and partnerships.
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In March, US technology publication The Information reported that Kalanick was preparing to launch a new self-driving car and robotics venture with significant backing from Uber. The report said Kalanick wanted to move more aggressively on autonomous vehicle rollouts than existing operators such as Waymo.
Kalanick, who was forced out of Uber in 2017 following a series of governance and workplace controversies, had originally spearheaded Uber’s autonomous driving ambitions. The company later sold its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to Aurora in 2020 under Khosrowshahi’s leadership.
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Since then, Uber has shifted to a partnership-led strategy in autonomous mobility instead of building the technology in-house. The company has struck several deals across the globe with autonomous vehicle companies, including Waymo, Motional and May Mobility, to integrate robotaxis onto its platform.
Earlier this year, Kalanick also unveiled a new robotics-focused company called Atoms, which combines his ghost kitchen business CloudKitchens with transportation and industrial automation initiatives.
Talking about Uber’s shift towards more disciplined execution under his leadership rather than pursuing moonshots, and whether that strategy works in the AI era, Khosrowshahi said, “All I can do is my best here. Since I joined the company, the business has grown 10 times over. We just had our best year but I expect every year to be our best year. If next year is not our best then I’ve failed.”
“UberEats is 100x what it was when I joined. I get to stand on the shoulders of giants, but the business has grown and I like winning as a team. When you get to celebrate success with a room full of partners and friends, it’s a lot more fun than celebrating success alone,” he said.
