Why Elon Musk Turned Down a Partnership with Uber on Self-Driving Cars

Uber is like the chopped liver at a potluck dinner...no one wants to touch it.

Not even Elon Musk

In an upcoming book all about Uber, Fortune's Adam Lashinsky reveals a conversation he had with Travis Kalanick (CEO of Uber) about a conversation Travis had with Elon Musk. Woah, a conversation within a conversation.

Reportedly, Travis called Elon to propose a partnership between the two tech giants, Uber and Tesla, to further the development of self-driving cars. Elon “politely” declined.

"I said, 'Look man, we should partner,' " Kalanick stated in the book. "Elon spent the rest of the call convincing me that it's too far out, and it's not realistic, that I should just stick to what we do best and be focused, or I'm going to fuck it all up. That's when I knew Tesla was competing."

This could be a soap opera...seriously

If we rewind to a few months ago, the self-driving conversation revolved around Uber allegedly stealing self-driving intellectual property from rival Waymo (a Google company).

Essentially, Anthony Levandowski left Waymo to work for Uber, bringing with him a lot of valuable insights to sweeten the deal. He’s since been banned from any work involving self-driving technology.

As if starting from scratch weren’t enough of a punishment for Uber, the company they back-stabbed is now front-stabbing Uber.

That’s right, Waymo has closed a partnership with Uber-rival, Lyft. In an effort to bring autonomous vehicles to the mainstream and squash Uber for good, these two are clearly the duo to beat.

But, let’s not forget that Tesla has documented the most impressive self-driving demo yet.

Now you see how this could be a soap opera, haha.

What’s the big deal?

There are five stages that these cars must go through before becoming fully autonomous. Right now, they are around stage 2ish.

Ideally, though, the holy grail once this is accomplished is: self-driving taxis.

Basically, they all believe that no one needs to own a car in this future. Where companies like Tesla, Waymo, or Uber own a fleet of self-driving cars that roam the streets all day, driving people to and fro.

This grand idea would not only alleviate parking and traffic issues in urban areas, but it would make the dominant player a TON of money. So, that’s why the fight to the top has been riddled with foul play (Uber), quiet lurking (Tesla), and in-your-face moves (Waymo - Lyft).

I understand that following these conversations, and understanding what is actually going on with the technology can be quite daunting.

That’s why I started Quick Theories – a brief, weekly newsletter that helps you understand the broad tech concepts that are shaping our future. So you can be proactive, not reactive, regarding technology adoption.

My last article was: Tech-Savvy Journalists are Overtaking Media Companies

If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive one weekly, sign-up here: quicktheories.com