The ride-hailing company bought an artificial intelligence company, and artificial intelligence research comes next.
Uber's ride-hailing service is set to get smarter. The company announced on Monday that it bought New York-based AI start-up Geometric Intelligence and will soon launch its own AI research lab, creatively named Uber AI Labs. Geometric Intelligence's 15 specialists in machine learning will help drive Uber's research in self-driving cars (confirmed by Geometric Intelligence CEO Gary Marcus to the The Wall Street Journal).
Autonomous vehicles are a hot research area for the automotive industry right now, and Uber is keen to make its mark on the cutting-edge technology, along with carmakers like BMW and technology titans like Google.
While Uber's own fleet of self-driving cars tool around San Francisco (I've seen them), pick up passengers in Pittsburgh and go on the occasional beer run, it needs to do much more to not be left behind in the dust.
Read more:
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-starting-ai-research-lab-geometric-intelligence/
