Self-driving cars are an ‘existential crisis’ for Uber, ‘Upstarts’ author Brad Stone says - Recode

Driven to succeed

"“It’s amazing what you can do when it’s an existential crisis, when it’s your future and your whole business,” Stone said. “It’s not Google’s business, it’s not Apple’s business. It’s the car companies’ business, but we can be privately pessimistic about the chances that they’ll become real technology companies.”

“So, in that respect, I think Uber has a tremendous advantage: They’re well-capitalized, they’ve got an amazing business that can fund the research, and everything is hinging on it,” he added. “In some ways, I think they’re the company to beat. At the same time, Google had a 10-year head start, but there’s not a good track record there of maintaining talent. They’ve got Waymo problems.”"

Self-driving cars are an ‘existential crisis’ for Uber, ‘Upstarts’ author Brad Stone says - Recode