Uber is not standing still and looking to expand its business not only in scale, but also in scope. It is adding ways to utilise its technology in different parts of the transport services industry and the next is a self-driving car, much like those of Google and Apple.
Last month Uber poached much of the autonomous vehicle team from Carnegie Mellon University‘s robotics lab and now it has found the perfect person to head up this project: Brian McClendon.
Brian McLendon is a 10 year veteran and former vice president of Google. While his name might not immediately ring a bell, McClendon is most famous for co-founding the start-up that eventually became Google Earth before making Google Maps what it is today.
At this stage, Uber wholly relies on other business‘ mapping services to make its various transport services work, but they have found some problems with this approach. Now that they have a thriving business with masses of cash flowing in, it is time to build its own solution (or so it would seem).
Brian McLendon will be heading up the Advanced Technologies Center at Uber, which is the more stimulating name of Uber‘s self-driving car project.
Source: Re/Code
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