Uber Announces Toronto AV Hub Expansion
Uber has announced plans to expand its self-driving hub in Toronto where it develops the AI software used by its AVs.
At a press conference in the city, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the ride-hailing giant would increase headcount and activity at Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), the autonomous tech development center it operates in the city. The company has moved development of such technology away from Arizona following the well-publicized fatal collision with a pedestrian that occurred there in March. It is now focusing on Toronto, Pittsburgh and California as bases of its self-driving operations and has found its prototype AVs require operation by highly-trained technical specialists.
In addition to the opening of an additional engineering hub in the Canadian city in 2019, Khosrowshahi announced investments of over $200M in the local market over the next five years and an increase in the number of employees there to 500 “within the next couple of years”.
He also discussed the ATG’s work in AI software development, saying such technology was “a central facet” in ensuring Uber’s AVs were “reliable” and “safe”. Khosrowshahi claimed that when fully developed, the software would allow the AVs to “perceive the world … predict the world, and then … make a decision as to what they should do next”.
