Bloomberg headline: Waymo Partners With Uber on Trucking After Bitter Lawsuit Ends
Waymo will connect its autonomous trucking operation to Uber Freight, the logistics business owned by the ride-hailing firm, a few months after the companies ended a bitter legal fight over self-driving technology.
The companies announced Tuesday a “deep, long-term partnership.” In the deal, carriers that use self-driving tech from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo will be able to join the network from Uber Freight, which serves as a broker among truckers and shipping firms. The companies said in a statement that they will also work on a service to provide “easy and fast transfers between” autonomous systems and human drivers.
Trucking is one of the main applications of self-driving technology that investors see primed for commercial success. Waymo, one of a few leading contenders in the field, has been testing big rigs in Texas. A Waymo spokesperson said the company’s trucking service, Waymo Via, will be running on Uber Freight’s network within the year. The companies didn’t share financial details of the partnership.