Uber Buys AI Firm To Develop Driverless Cars

The American multinational transportation network company Uber, which offers many services including peer-to-peer ridesharing and food delivery, announced the acquisition of computer vision startup Mighty AI. Uber’s mission is to drive product differentiation and business efficiency using visual data, which Mighty AI would train though their algorithms. Uber has several state of the art teams working together to develop computer vision and machine learning solutions. 

Uber being used in a taxi.

Uber being used in a taxi.

While Uber did not delve into the terms of the takeover, sources indicate that at least 40 developers from Mighty AI would join Uber’s AI labs. Uber will acquire Mighty AI’s intellectual property and employees. 

I’m excited to pair Mighty AI’s platform and expertise in generating high-quality labelled data with Uber ATG’s world-class research and engineering to accelerate the development of self-driving technology.
— Daryn Nakhuda Mighty AI's CEO


Uber has been working  towards autonomous cars at their robotics facilities for several years now. Uber’s acquisition of Mighty AI, a company that specializes in computer vision which trains to data to improve how self-driving cars visualize other objects such as people on the road, shows how committed Uber is towards their driverless cars project. Self-driving cars are Mighty AI’s USP, however that hasn’t prevented the company from gaining success in other application such as self service checkout systems and precision agriculture.


Several of Mighty AI’s giant clients which include Microsoft, Intel and Samsung have been informed of the closure. Mighty AI raised $27.3 million from several investors, such as Google and Madrona Venture Group which lead to the company being valued at $85 million as of its last round of funding.


The news comes right on the heels of Apple’s acquisition of drive.ai, which confirms that Apple has not given up yet on its autonomous driving project. The acquisition gave Apple access to drive.ai’s technology and its employees. 


Indraneel Dulange