With ambitions of self-driving cars, Uber is headed to Motor City.
On Monday, Sherif Marakby, the ride-hailing company’s vice president of global vehicle programs, announced that Uber will be opening a facility in the Detroit area “in the coming months,” according to the Detroit News. The company hopes a presence in Detroit will help it work more closely with automakers and suppliers in the area.
“Detroit is where the automotive industry has really developed — very, very strong talent base; very strong companies — and Uber wants to be part of that,” said Marakby at the SAE Convergence conference in Novi, Mich., according to the report. Prior joining Uber, Marakby spent 25 years at Ford (F).
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Marakby didn’t disclose additional details about the facility, but he did say it could become home to a very large number of Uber employees. Marakby also said that Uber is already in talks with global automakers about partnering.
Last week, the company debuted a small number of self-driving Ford Fusion cars in Pittsburgh it purchased from dealerships and modified, though the company has made it clear it has no interest in manufacturing cars. Rather, it plans to work with automakers on that front. Uber announced earlier this a summer a partnership and $300 million investment from Volvo.
Depending on regulations, Detroit could also become a location for a fleet of self-driving Uber cars, said Marakby, according to the report.
Coins2Day has contacted Uber and will update this story if we hear back.