# Uber and Daimler Join Forces on Self-Driving Cars



## MikesUber (Oct 23, 2015)

Source: https://newsroom.uber.com/uber-daimler-self-driving-cars/









January 31, 2017 Posted by Travis Kalanick

I'm excited to announce an agreement with Daimler, one of the world's top auto manufacturers with more than a century of experience designing some of the world's best and most iconic vehicles. In the coming years, Daimler has planned to introduce and operate their own self-driving cars on Uber's ridesharing network.

We are incredibly excited by the potential for self-driving cars to further our mission of bringing reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere. They will also help to reduce traffic accidents, which today kill many people a year; free up the huge amount of space currently used to park the world's billion-plus cars; and cut congestion, which is choking our cities.

Of course, we can't do it alone. Auto manufacturers like Daimler are crucial to our strategy because Uber has no experience making cars-and in fact, making cars is really hard. This became very clear to me after I visited an auto manufacturing plant and saw how much effort goes into designing, testing and building cars.

That's why instead of building them ourselves, we want to partner with the best auto manufacturers in the world. We can combine Uber's global ridesharing network with the world-class vehicles of companies like Daimler, so that Uber riders can have a great experience getting around their cities.

I've been personally impressed with Daimler-whose company mantra is "The Best or Nothing"-and with the leadership of Dieter Zetsche, who had a friendly debate with me about the future of mobility and the auto industry last year in Berlin. Dieter said then that Daimler and Uber could be "frenemies"-in fact, we turned out to be great partners.

By opening up the Uber platform to Daimler, we can get to the future faster than going it alone. It's a future in which our cities and roads will be safer, cleaner and more accessible, and we couldn't be more excited about what's next.


----------



## MikesUber (Oct 23, 2015)

Source: http://mashable.com/2017/01/31/uber-daimler-partnership/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link#hf45NLCd6mqN


*Daimler will manufacture its own self-driving cars just for Uber*​
By Emma Hinchliffe - 30 minutes ago

Uber's next round of self-driving cars won't be owned by Uber at all - and the cars could be Mercedes.

Daimler, the German automaker behind the Mercedes-Benz, will manufacture autonomous cars meant for Uber and and operate them through the ride-hailing company, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced in a blog post Tuesday.

"We can combine Uber's global ridesharing network with the world-class vehicles of companies like Daimler, so that Uber riders can have a great experience getting around their cities," Kalanick wrote.

The partnership is part of Uber's strategy to run a network of self-driving cars, but not build them itself. The ride-hailing company already operates the world's largest fleet of human-driven cars while owning only a fraction of them.

"Auto manufacturers like Daimler are crucial to our strategy because Uber has no experience making cars-and in fact, making cars is really hard," Kalanick wrote.

Uber already has self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, and the company ended a test program in San Francisco after drawing the ire of California regulators. The autonomous cars first intended for California are instead moving to Arizona.

Those self-driving cars were all Volvo XC90 SUVs through a partnership between the two companies. In that agreement, however, Uber purchased the autonomous cars from Volvo. Daimler will instead be entirely responsible for its self-driving vehicles in Uber's fleet.

"By opening up the Uber platform to Daimler, we can get to the future faster than going it alone," Kalanick wrote.


----------



## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Now who was it that predicted this exactly? I'm racking my brain but can't come up with a name...

...I think it rhymed with RamzFanz...

The entire "they can't afford a fleet" argument has fallen. There _are _answers to the common naysayer arguments if you're honest and your mind is open.


----------



## Jermin8r89 (Mar 10, 2016)

RamzFanz said:


> Now who was it that predicted this exactly? I'm racking my brain but can't come up with a name...
> 
> ...I think it rhymed with RamzFanz...
> 
> The entire "they can't afford a fleet" argument has fallen. There _are _answers to the common naysayer arguments if you're honest and your mind is open.


Sometimes i think your a bot?


----------

