The terms of the deal were not disclosed publicly, but it is believed that Uber will allow the fifteen employees of the New York start-up to form the base of Uber's artificial intelligence efforts in its research center. Chief product officer at Uber, Jeff Holden spoke about how Uber's aim was to use technology to move people and things in the real world - describing it as a high-order intelligence problem.
In a blog post Holden said: "Uber is in the business of using technology to move people and things in the real world. With all of its complexity and uncertainty, negotiating the real world is a high-order intelligence problem. It manifests in myriad ways, from determining an optimal route to computing when your car or Uber-Eats order will arrive to matching riders for Uber-Pool. It extends to teaching a self-driven machine to safely and autonomously navigate the world, whether a car on the roads or an aircraft through busy airspace or new types of robotic devices."
Uber which operates in more than sixty countries all over the world is valued at more than $600 billion, and earlier this year launched a test project for self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - its latest move in acquiring an artificial intelligence company signals its intent to step-up efforts in terms of developing autonomous vehicles.