Travis Kalanick has reportedly started a new self-driving company backed by Uber

Travis Kalanick is reportedly starting a new self-driving car company with heavy backing from Uber, according to reports. Information. He reportedly told people that he “wants to be more aggressive in rolling out Waymo’s self-driving technology,” according to the report.

The Uber founder is also considering acquiring Pronto, a self-driving car startup focused on industrial and mining sites that was created by his former colleague at the ride-hailing company, Anthony Levandowski. Last year, Kalanick was said to be as well Interested in purchasing The US arm of Chinese self-driving car company Pony AI is backed by Uber, although The Information said on Friday that those talks had ended.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kalanick He resigned from Uber In 2017 after a confluence of crises in the passenger transport company. At the time, the company was plagued by complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination, prompting an external investigation that resulted in more than 20 cases. Fire employees.

Before that, Kalanick created a file Uber’s self-driving division in 2015. Levandowski played a large role in this project after Kalanick lured him away from Google. Eventually, Google sued Uber for stealing secrets related to its self-driving car project (which eventually became Waymo). The two companies settled down, but so did Levandowski Criminally charged and He was sentenced to 18 months in prison In prison for his role in the case. The engineer received a last-minute pardon from President Trump At the end of his first term.

The company continued work on the project after Kalanick’s resignation, including after one of its experimental vehicles resigned He struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018. Kalanick’s successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, closed and The division was sold For independent trucking company Aurora in 2020.

In a Rare interview In March 2025, Kalanick expressed his regret that Uber was abandoning the development of its self-driving cars.