Toyota cuts stake in Uber by half after autonomous unit divests

Toyota cuts its stake in Uber by half, seeks to maintain its ties Reuters- Japan's Toyota Motor Corp has cut its stake in Uber Technologies Inc by half after the ride-hailing giant divested the autonomous driving unit at the center of their collaboration.

Toyota's investment was one of the main objectives of the development of vehicles related to automated driving, according to a statement by Shiori Hashimoto, who said the company still aims to maintain their alliance.

The world's largest car maker held 5.13 million shares of Uber as of March 31, down from the 10.25 million shares it owned a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Toyota had invested $500 million in Uber in 2018 to work on developing self-driving cars, as both companies tried to catch up to rivals in the hotly competitive autonomous driving business.

In 2020, Uber sold its autonomous driving unit to Aurora Innovation Inc in a bid to achieve its profitability goals.

Aurora and Toyota started testing the autonomous ride-hailing fleet in Texas in March, with two safety operators and no passenger on board.

Uber was not immediately available for comment.