Uber revealed of a strategic alliance with Carnegie Mellon University in order to set up the the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, near the CMU campus.
The center will fuel further opportunities for the two parties, wherein Uber can work closely with CMU faculty, staff, and students — both on campus and at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) — to do research and development, primarily in the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology, Uber revealed on Monday.
Chief product officer at Uber, Jeff Holden said speaking for Uber that through this collaboration there is a “unique opportunity to invest in leading edge technologies to enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale.”
“This collaboration and the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center represent an important investment in building for the long term of Uber,” he said.
As per the agreement Uber will also provide funding for faculty chairs and graduate fellowships.
However, the implications of this partnership go further, beyond the symbiotic nature of the two involved. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the intention of developing autonomous driving technology with help from CMU, pitches it in direct confrontation with Google, who apart from being involved in some serious research into driverless cars, also happens to be a major investor in Uber.
(Image credit: Joseph, via Flickr)
