COMMENT: What drove Uber’s withdrawal from autonomous trucks?

Autonomy is, along with electrification, one of the key technological – and societal - challenges with which the global commercial vehicle industry is now coming to grips. But, in the case of Uber and its autonomous truck division – a division that grew out of Uber’s US$680m acquisition of start-up Otto a couple of years ago – it’s no longer a challenge; Uber has announced that it will shutter the truck division and will focus instead upon testing and developing self-driving passenger cars.