Aurora Innovation, the self-driving startup based by three of probably the most outstanding members of the fledgling trade, will quickly add one other large identify to its ranks.

The corporate mentioned Monday it’s buying Uber’s Superior Expertise Group, a transfer that infuses the startup with employees and recent funds. As a part of the deal, Uber plans to speculate $400 million in Aurora.

In alternate for the money and the self-driving tech, Uber will maintain a 26 % possession curiosity in Aurora, in keeping with Uber’s 8-Okay submitting with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee. The deal is anticipated to shut within the first quarter of 2021.

Uber had been looking for a purchaser for its self-driving division for a number of months, because it sought to remove its extra bold mobility investments and focus on its core ride-hailing service. Earlier this 12 months, it bought its Leap bike-share program to rival Lime. Final week, Uber reportedly agreed to promote its air-taxi analysis division to Joby Aviation.

Although anticipated, the sale of its self-driving division is nonetheless a hard-look-in-the-mirror second for Uber that carries extra weight than the opposite divestments.

In 2016, then-CEO Travis Kalanick instructed Bloomberg that self-driving know-how was “principally existential” to the corporate’s success. However Uber’s present CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi had sought to chop prices at an organization that continues to lose tons of of tens of millions each quarter, together with a $1.2 billion internet loss within the third quarter this 12 months.

Now, Uber will depend on one other firm to enhance self-driving know-how to a degree the place it could possibly be sometime utilized in robotaxis deployed upon its ride-hailing community. Khosrowshahi joins Aurora’s board as a part of the acquisition.

Robotaxis must wait.

First, Aurora Innovation, the corporate based by Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson and Drew Bagnell, will focus on trucking purposes for the self-driving system. Aurora opened an workplace within the Dallas-Fort Value space this 12 months, the place it has begun testing autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Class 8 vehicles.

“We’re shifting the panorama of the automated car area,” Urmson, CEO at Aurora, mentioned in a press release Monday. “With the addition of ATG, Aurora may have an extremely robust group and know-how, a transparent path to a number of markets and the sources to ship.

“Merely put, Aurora would be the firm finest positioned to ship self-driving merchandise essential to make transportation and logistics safer, extra accessible and cheaper.”

Aurora’s companions embody Amazon and Fiat Chrysler Vehicles, and the cope with Uber ATG doubtlessly brings aboard one other key associate. Toyota Motor Corp. and affiliated provider Denso Corp. collectively invested $667 million in Uber ATG in April 2019, a transfer that valued Uber ATG at $7.5 billion on the time.

The present worth of Toyota’s stake in Aurora just isn’t clear. An Aurora spokeswoman mentioned Monday that the corporate had nothing to announce with Toyota at the moment.