Ride-hailing service Uber has sounded out car companies about placing a large order for self-driving car. Loss-making Uber would make drastic savings on its biggest cost, drivers if it were able to incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet. Audi, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, BMW and car industry suppliers Bosch and Continental are all working on technologies for autonomous or semi-autonomous cars.
Rumour in Germany mentions that Uber has just placed an order for at least 100,000 Mercedes S-class cars and this is really unlikely. The S class does not yet have fully autonomous driving functionality. Mercedes sold about 100,000 S-class models last year. Auto industry executives are wary of doing deals with newcomers from the technology and software business who threaten to upend established business models based on manufacturing and selling cars.
“We don’t want to end up like Nokia’s handset business, which was once hugely profitable…then disappeared,” an auto industry source said about doing a deal with Uber.
