Uber gets $1B investment boost for autonomous vehicle unit

Proof here that seeking investment in a business never stops, despite being on the eve of going on the public financial markets: Uber has raised another $1 billion.

The investment is specifically going to Uber's autonomous vehicle division, known as Advanced Technologies Group, with the goal of solving one of the biggest challenges in the fledgling sector of implementing hardware and software cheaply and at scale.

Three organizations are behind the move, including car manufacturing giant Toyota.

Also backing the division are SoftBank Vision Fund and the Denso Corporation, an autonomous vehicle technology supplier. Toyota and Denso are fronting two-thirds of the investment and SoftBank will inject $333 million.

Uber claims the investment will value its ATG division in the region of $7.25 billion. The entire company is expected to be worth around $120 billion when its IPO comes to fruition shortly.

It's not the first time that Toyota has backed Uber. The Japanese company invested $500 million in the summer of 2018, as part of a plan to roll out the manufacturer's Sienna model-led ride-sharing vehicles across the Uber network in 2021.

Uber says the new round of investment is "deepening the companies’ collaboration in designing and developing next-generation autonomous vehicle hardware."

Toyota has pledged a further $300 million over the course of the next three years to support "mass production and commercialization of automated ride-sharing vehicles and services".

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says the new investment illustrates an "exciting future ahead for this important project."

"The development of automated driving technology will transform transportation as we know it, making our streets safer and our cities more livable. Today’s announcement, along with our ongoing OEM and supplier relationships, will help maintain Uber’s position at the forefront of that transformation."

Toyota says the collaboration will help create cheaper services in the autonomous vehicle sector.

Shigeki Tomoyama, Toyota's executive vice president and also president of the brand's in-house Connected Company unit, says: "We believe that the combined work of Toyota, Denso and Uber ATG on developing next-generation autonomous vehicle hardware will accelerate the timeline for and early success of automated ride-sharing services."