Uber in advanced talks to sell air taxi unit

Uber is in advanced talks to sell its air taxi business, "Uber Elevate", to aerospace firm Joby Aviation, news website Axios reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

Uber did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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Its shares rose by over 6% following the news.

Hyundai, which in January announced a partnership with Uber Elevate to develop electric air taxis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With Uber’s business rattled by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company cut 23% of its workforce in May as part of aggressive cost cuts and vowed to focus on its core ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses.

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Uber has been working on various other businesses, including the development of self-driving cars, the Elevate project, and a freight logistics network. The ride-hailing service is making allies of public transit systems by now offering to sell them its software expertise.

“Providing software is a higher-margin service for us. We’re leveraging technology we’ve been building for years,” said David Reich, Uber’s head of transit.

Uber is talking with dozens of worldwide transit agencies to implement software-based projects, Reich added.

The company is also in talks to sell its self-driving business.