Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced a partnership with AT&T and spoke on the future of self-driving cars.
Kalanick spoke at this week's Code Conference in California, commenting on Uber's new deal with AT&T and the use of self-driving cars in the future. He also discussed raising money to battle Uber's competitors and hiring political experts that can help the company succeed in the taxi industry.
The new Uber and AT&T partnership would provide car service's drivers with the carrier's phones. AT&T also agreed to have the Uber app preloaded into the phones offered to customers.
On the topic of self-driving cars, Kalanick expressed interest in Google's self-driving car project and said that it is the way of the future. He explained how Uber became expensive not because of the car, but because of the person driving the car. He calculated that it would be cheaper when there is no driver.
Kalanick elaborated on how Uber became different from other tech companies.
"It's not Pinterest where people are putting up pins. You're changing the way cities work, and that's fundamentally a third rail. We're in a political campaign, and the candidate is Uber and the opponent is an a*****e named Taxi. Nobody likes him, he's not a nice character, but he's so woven into the political machinery and fabric that a lot of people owe him favors," he told Re/code.
Due to the challenges the company is facing, Kalanick planned to reveal the dark, dangerous, and evil side of taxis. Uber will be hiring a senior executive who has managed cities or political campaigns.
The company also planned to raise money to secure its cash advantage to deal with competitors such as Lyft. Uber is now reportedly valued at $17 billion.
