Ride-hailing giant Uber is in talks to team up with rival Waymo on driverless cars, says CEO

Ride-hailing firm Uber is now in talks with Alphabet’s autonomous driving firm Waymo on a possible future together using Uber’s taxi app despite its previous rivalry, its CEO said last night.

Speaking at a conference in the US, Dara Khosrowshahi said that Uber’s relationship with Waymo has been improving since the outcome of a legal dispute over trade secrets in February, which saw Uber pay Waymo $245m (£184m) in shares.

The lawsuit followed the career change of one of Waymo’s former engineers, who later became chief of Uber’s own self-driving car project and reportedly took with him thousands of confidential documents.

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Waymo itself plans to launch a ride-hailing app-based service using its autonomous driving technology this year, and already holds a partnership with Lyft, another Uber competitor.

“We’re having discussions with Waymo. If something happens, great. If not, we can live with that, too,” Khosrowshahi said.

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The CEO believes that Waymo will want to partner up with Uber to access its large network of smartphone users, as self-driving tech becomes more widespread among the industry. Uber’s own plans to develop autonomous driving have been on hold after a fatal crash involving one of its vehicles occurred earlier this month, but is planning to restart operations soon.