Uber stops developing self-driving trucks

San Francisco July 31 (IANS) Global cab-hailing platform Uber has stopped developing self-driving trucks as the programme was no longer competitive in the freight shipping industry the company announced.
Uber said on Monday that it wants to refocus on the self-driving car programme which was halted following a crash in which a Uber autonomous car killed a pedestrian in Arizona in March reports Xinhua news agency.
Employees in the San Francisco-based self-driving truck division will be relocated to other internal units including the Pittsburgh-based self-driving car programme.
Despite the shutdown Uber Freight a business unit that helps match truck drivers with shipping companies will not be affected.
Uber ventured into driverless vehicles in early 2015.
Controversy was aroused when it purchased Otto a self-driving truck startup founded by a former Google engineer in 2016.
Google later accused the engineer of stealing confidential files before he left the company.

--IANS ksk