General
September 13, 2018
4 minutes read

Uber to launch an engineering hub in Toronto investing $150 million to further its self-driving efforts

A Volvo XC90 test car retrofitted with Uber’s autonomous technology Uber Uber CEO Dara Khrosrowshahi has announced at an event today of…

A Volvo XC90 test car retrofitted with Uber’s autonomous technology

Uber

Uber CEO Dara Khrosrowshahi has announced at an event today of the company launching a new engineering hub in the Canadian region which would mark its 8th outside the U.S. and is set for completion early next year while serving as center aimed at accelerating new offerings through R&D.

It’ll come as an expansion of Uber Advanced Technologies Group’s office opened in Toronto last year with an addition of 300 employees to bring its total headcount in the country to over 500.

“We like what we see. Toronto has a terrific talent base,” Khrosrowshahi said, in an interview with The Canadian Press. “Canada, for us, is an important hub…we think we can build a terrific engineering talent base here.”

Uber plans to invest $150 million in its engineering efforts in Toronto over the next 5 years which would serve as a boost for its offerings with research & development being furthered to continually improve its offerings.

After a tragic accident which occurred months ago involving one of its self-driving vehicles which struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, Uber shut down its Arizona R&D facility and is now gearing more efforts to improve safety with this new engineering hub representing part of this.

“There’s a huge amount of work to be done,” Khrosrowshahi admitted concerning Uber’s autonomous transportation efforts. Just recently, Auto giant Toyota invested $500 million in Uber and inked a partnership with the company on self-driving tech indicating progress of its activities in the space.

The tweet below was made by Rob Khazzam, A GM at Uber Canada confirming its expansion plans in the region.

Uber is announcing its biggest commitment to Canada ever – $200M, a new engineering hub in Toronto, and growing our headcount to over 500 (more than 2x today) over the next couple of years. Great win for Canada + city of Toronto, which has an amazing and growing tech ecosystem.

— Rob Khazzam (@rkhazzam) September 13, 2018