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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says its self-driving cars will create more jobs, not destroy them

Aug 19, 2016, 05:39 IST

Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

Travis Kalanick says that Uber needs to move fast on self-driving cars or face an "existential threat" from foes like Google.

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But the CEO's attitude and ambition may sound an awful lot like a looming existential threat for another group: the thousands of people that currently drive for the ride-hailing startup.

After all, Uber's engineering director told Bloomberg that "the goal is to wean us off having drivers in the cars."

But Kalanick denied in an interview with Business Insider that adding autonomous vehicles to the network will eliminate the need for humans.

Instead, while the percentage of human drivers giving trips may go down, the absolute number of hu may actually go up, he argues.

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Moreover, Kalanick argues, is that the rise of autonomous cars will open up new jobs like maintaining the car fleets, jobs that simply don't exist today because there has never been a need. Part of advancing technology has always meant that some professions become extinct in the process, he argues.

It's a transition that Uber is tackling in a bold and aggressive fashion, and Kalanick isn't afraid to mince words about what it will mean in the future.

Read Business Insider's full interview to find out why Uber's CEO says this is the one experiment the company can't afford to get wrong.

NOW WATCH: Uber will be offering free rides in self-driving cars later this month

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