Uber puts its pedal to the metal on self-driving cars, halting truck plans

Uber will focus its driverless vehicles technology solely on cars for the foreseeable future, halting development plans for cargo trucks.

The ride-hailing giant said in a statement late last night that it will close down its self-driving trucks unit, which was born after the company bought a startup named Otto in a multimillion dollar acquisition in 2016.

Uber Freight, a smartphone app which connects drivers to shippers, is unaffected by the decision.

"We believe having our entire teams energy and expertise focused on [self-driving cars] is the best path forward," said Eric Meyhofer, head of Uber's advanced technologies group, in a statement.

The autonomous vehicle (AV) industry is rife with competition, with the likes of General Motors and Ford scoring big investments into their self-driving units in recent months.

Uber said employees working within its self-driving trucks division will be moved to other internal roles inside its AV unit.

The company successfully completed a shipment delivered by a self-driving truck two years ago, when a truck drove 120 miles in Colorado carrying Budweiser beer.

Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, revealed the company is in talks with its rival Waymo to link up on AV-tech, despite the two only recently settling a legal dispute which alleged a former Waymo employee had stolen trade secrets for the taxi app.

Uber suspended all self-driving car tests in the US earlier this year, after a fatal accident occurred with one of its autonomous cars that killed a pedestrian.

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