Toyota Investing $500 Million in Uber in Driverless-Car Pact [The Wall Street Journal]

Is this the first sign that Uber is listening to its investors and looking to hand off the autonomous vehicles development to a car manufacturer?

Some take-aways from Recode Daily

1. Uber's valuation has remained flattish despite its rapid, continued growth and turbulence: The deal values Uber at about $72 billion, slightly higher than where SoftBank valued Uber earlier this year.
2. Uber isn't getting rid of its potential self-driving future: Instead, it now has a good reason to keep going with its autonomous-tech unit, which some investors reportedly want(ed) it to divest.
3. The deal creates a new model for Uber, answering part of the ownership question. As part of the deal, Uber will integrate its self-driving technology into Toyota Sienna minivans. But: "Rather than owning and operating the fleet of self-driving vehicles," Uber said in a blog post, "these minivans will be owned and operated by an agreed upon third party, a new business model for Uber."

Toyota Investing $500 Million in Uber in Driverless-Car Pact