Uber ATC partners with OSVehicle to build its self-driving fleet

Behind Uber’s plan to build its own cars using open source hardware

Today, OSVehicle is announcing its partnership with Uber Advanced Technologies Center. Uber, which announced its strategic partnership with Carnegie Mellon University just last year to focus on key long-term technologies such as autonomous driving technology and vehicle safety, will now utilize OSVehicle’s open source car platform to develop, test, and embed their technology, allowing the transportation megacorn to develop their self-driving fleets independently of the major automakers.

“Uber decided to partner with us, because they saw the potential of a unified vehicle platform for the future of mobility, with transportation services such as UberX, and last-mile delivery services such as UberEATS and UberRUSH.”

— OSVehicle

The connection with Uber became a reality when Qasar Yunis, partner and COO of Y Combinator, introduced OSVehicle (YC W16) to Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick. Qasar, who was a former engineer at both GM and Bosch, saw the potential in OSVehicle to bring balance to the Force.

Uber will lead OSVehicle’s series A as part of the deal with participation from Y Combinator, but the final amount remains undisclosed. The acquisition will enable Uber to counter its arch-rival Lyft, which recently entered in a strategic partnership with General Motors in a $500M investment deal. The company added that “developing our own vehicles will allow us to deliver models tailored for each country, where operating conditions as well as legal and safety regulations differ.”

OSVehicle car platforms will remain open-source, serving new and existing customers while powering the world’s largest still-private startup ($62.5 billion as reported by CNBC) to build vehicles for the North American market, with Europe and Asia to follow.

“We want to introduce autonomous driving where the existing infrastructure can support it. US road infrastructure and law enforcement make it far safer for the deployment of this kind of technology than less mature markets, such as southeast Asia.”

— Uber ATC

Travis will join OSVehicle’s board of directors, alongside with Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator. Tin Hang Liu will co-serve as a strategy advisor for emerging markets to Uber.