How much did Uber spend on its self-driving car efforts over the years? Stratospheric answers only.@CadeMetz @kateconger https://t.co/u81NlJdTr1

— Pui-Wing Tam (@puiwingtam) December 7, 2020

The business case for self-driving cars, in general, remains tenuous at best. Who would buy them? Probably not private owners. Hobbyists and the super rich? Sure.

— Chris O'Brien (@obrien) December 7, 2020

Looking back on the hype, VC funding, and huge genuine progress in AI, ML, and autonomous vehicles in the 2010s, I think this will come to be seen as an inflection point: Uber, After Years of Trying, Is Handing off Its Self-Driving Car Project https://t.co/XePvjbFPD7

— Christopher Manning (@chrmanning) December 8, 2020

damn you didn't even have to wait 20 years https://t.co/xUdNw30r1F

— Casey Johnston (@caseyjohnston) December 7, 2020

Can only giant rich companies like Google afford to work on driverless cars?

(Even Aurora is working on big rig trucks, not cars.) https://t.co/shxoXHD8l6

— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) December 7, 2020

So Uber's main business is in the toilet, will remain there for the foreseeable future, and now they've sold off the promised land of a self-driving and profitable future. What a dumpster fire. https://t.co/oNzddrmBOA

— DHH (@dhh) December 8, 2020

NEW: Uber’s self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, is being acquired by its start-up competitor Aurora Innovation. The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, values ATG at approximately $4 billion.https://t.co/0PbyGDP64X

— Jessica Bursztynsky (@jbursz) December 7, 2020

I find myself thinking surprisingly often of the 2014 take that "if tech companies can make self-driving cars, surely they can make a Content ID for online harassment" https://t.co/JyK9ASeUi1

— Parker Higgins (@xor) December 7, 2020

Uber exiting driverless certainly isn't something anyone saw coming a few years ago, wow, how the scope of that business has narrowed https://t.co/zDGm9mAoc8

— Leigh Drogen (@LDrogen) December 7, 2020

there was a time not too long ago where execs at Uber called figuring out autonomy as “existential” to the company’s long-term future

now it’s selling its research to the man who ran Google’s self-driving car project before it was called Waymo https://t.co/NRoacSApBt

— Mike Murphy (@mcwm) December 7, 2020

Honestly? Why has it taken this long? Also… this would be a bearish thing if you were a long, right? Cause Travis sold you on one app for transport… https://t.co/4hVMmi6MUK

— Brian McCullough (@brianmcc) December 7, 2020

tech writers hyped self-driving cars so much in the last decade, especially Uber's, that this might escape noticehttps://t.co/tvXX7HtI0G

— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) December 8, 2020

The end of an era! In 2019, ATG was valued at $7.25 billion. Now, Uber is investing $400 million in Aurora to shift self-driving off its balance sheet. Story w/ @cademetz https://t.co/s93pJe3Qwx

— o...k (@kateconger) December 7, 2020

I'm starting to think that Anthony Levandowski was a bad hire. https://t.co/9VkZa8Iy4J

— Jack Nicas (@jacknicas) December 7, 2020

That Uber is giving up on self-driving should come as a surprise to no one esp because Prop 22 means they don't need it anymore. https://t.co/LJbbJsUFus

— Allison Arieff (@aarieff) December 7, 2020

it's good to stop pretending https://t.co/jqwpgyCFG2

— Emanuel 3080berg (@emanuelmaiberg) December 7, 2020

Uber bails on self-driving carshttps://t.co/Gxcn4SbwZl

— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) December 7, 2020

Uber has abandoned its own self-driving car project. Another nail in the coffin for the Uber bull argument on how they'll become profitable. Khosrowshahi's vision for the future is a bit more mundane, & involves low-paid humans doing things for you... https://t.co/fAGatfBJub pic.twitter.com/zNDeopKEd3

— Sarah O'Connor (@sarahoconnor_) December 8, 2020

If it had been clear from the beginning that all this is is the world’s biggest staffing company whose only innovation is lower labor standards than everyone else, would economists would have been as boosterish? https://t.co/kMutiH3Wag

— Marshall Steinbaum ? (@Econ_Marshall) December 8, 2020

What does the Uber business model look like when it's running a massive fleet of self-driving cars? The capital expenditures would crush a company that can't even turn a profit running an asset-free business.

— Chris O'Brien (@obrien) December 7, 2020

Uber to give up on self-driving tech and finds a partner in Aurora instead https://t.co/jFohhLB17Y

— Dan Primack (@danprimack) December 8, 2020

Uber said today it will sell its self-driving research unit, Advanced Technologies Group, to Aurora Innovation and will invest $400 million in ATG's Silicon Valley rival. https://t.co/wjRl1TWbTn

— Axios (@axios) December 7, 2020

Its about time we stopped focusing on unicorn tech solutions and just focused on what matters - the health and happiness of our cities. https://t.co/N6zuTcc9JZ

— Mat Bonomi (@matbono) December 8, 2020

#Uber decides that doing actual stuff is hard, sells #selfdrivingcar division to firm with connections to #Toyota. https://t.co/g0aNThPCnG

— keep your electric eye on me (@murakamiwood) December 8, 2020

Uber gives up on self-driving cars. Will just have to make due with human exploitation https://t.co/AfgJA7EF1V

— Mark O. Riedl (@mark_riedl) December 8, 2020

Because it will always be cheaper to undermine the value of human labour than to actually develop a technology to ‘replace’ it. Lawyers are cheaper than AI folks. https://t.co/CifrqalsxL

— Tobias Revell (@tobias_revell) December 8, 2020