Uber stops developing self-driving trucks

San Francisco, July 31  Global cab-hailing platform Uber has stopped developing self-driving trucks as the programme was no longer competitive in the freight shipping industry, the company announced.

Uber said on Monday that it wants to refocus on the self-driving car programme, which was halted following a crash in which a Uber autonomous car killed a pedestrian in Arizona in March, reports Xinhua news agency.

Employees in the San Francisco-based self-driving truck division will be relocated to other internal units, including the Pittsburgh-based self-driving car programme.

Despite the shutdown, Uber Freight, a business unit that helps match truck drivers with shipping companies, will not be affected.

Uber ventured into driverless vehicles in early 2015. 

Controversy was aroused when it purchased Otto, a self-driving truck startup founded by a former Google engineer, in 2016. 

Google later accused the engineer of stealing confidential files before he left the company.