Driving Innovation in Arizona

Arizona has been a great home for Uber. Late last year, under the leadership of Governor Ducey, Arizona passed common sense ridesharing regulations that have helped thousands of Arizonans connect with reliable and affordable transportation options at the touch of a button.  In June, we opened our brand new Center of Excellence in Phoenix which is dedicated to providing world class customer support to our millions of riders and hundreds of thousands of driver-partners.  And just this morning Governor Ducey took another step toward attracting innovation to Arizona by welcoming self-driving car technology to the Grand Canyon State.

It’s clear that Arizona is pro-technology and welcomes innovation, and that’s why today, Uber is proud to announce that we are investing further in the technology ecosystem here.  Uber has signed a partnership with the University of Arizona focused on research and development in the optics space for mapping and safety.  We’ll work with some of the world’s leading experts in lens design at the University to improve the imagery we capture and use to build out mapping and safety features.  As part of this partnership, Uber will also be donating to U of A’s College of Optical Sciences — supporting the next generation of optical scientists and engineers as they make new exciting breakthroughs.

In addition, Tucson — and the University of Arizona — will be become the next home to our Uber mapping test vehicles.  They are already on the streets in Pittsburgh, where we are working in partnership with another great university — Carnegie Mellon.
Over the past 20 years, technology has helped democratize access to many services — often working in partnership with forward-thinking universities and elected officials across the United States.  But we’re still in the early days of what is possible.  Even five years ago it was almost unimaginable that anyone, anywhere in 330 cities around the world would be able to press a button and get a ride in less than five minutes.  We thank Governor Ducey, the City of Tucson, the University of Arizona and all of our statewide partners for working with Uber to continue advancing that vision.  

Image from left to right: Congresswoman Martha McSally, Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart and Vice President of Advanced Technologies at Uber, Brian McClendon Photo by: A.E. Araiza