Travis Kalanick reportedly starting a new self-driving company backed by Uber

Travis Kalanick, co-founder and former CEO of Uber, is reportedly launching a new self-driving vehicle company with significant backing from Uber. According to The Information, Kalanick aims to be more aggressive in deploying self-driving technology than competitors like Waymo. He is also considering acquiring Pronto, an autonomous vehicle startup focused on industrial and mining applications, founded by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. Previously, Kalanick showed interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of Chinese self-driving company Pony AI, but those talks have ended. Kalanick’s history with self-driving technology dates back to 2015 when he created Uber’s self-driving division and recruited Levandowski from Google. This project led to a high-profile legal battle with Google over stolen trade secrets, resulting in criminal charges against Levandowski. After Kalanick resigned in 2017 amid company scandals, Uber continued the self-driving program until a fatal accident in 2018 prompted his successor, Dara K