This agreement, another step into the future of shared and autonomous driving, is an element of Daimler’s new corporate strategy entitled CASE—which stands for “Connected”, “Autonomous”, “Shared & Services” and “Electric” (earlier post).

Uber has assembled a strong self-driving engineering group with its Advanced Technology Group, which is testing self-driving vehicles on the road in the US. Uber’s Otto division is also working on self-driving trucks. Uber also has valuable experience that comes from running a ridesharing and delivery network across 74 countries.

Each company will benefit from the other’s industry-leading capabilities in research and development of autonomous driving and network operations.

As the inventor of the automobile, Daimler aims to be a leader in autonomous driving—one of the most fascinating aspects of reinventing mobility. Mobility service providers offer an ideal platform for autonomous driving technology and Uber is a leading mobility platform company. The real revolution in future mobility lies in intelligently linking the four major trends we call CASE: connectivity, autonomous driving, sharing and electric mobility. And we will certainly be the driver of these changes.

— Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars