Uber funds chair in urban mobility at French grande école

Uber has transformed the way that many of us get around cities all over the world. It has now joined forces with Paris’ École Polytechnique (l’X) to create a chair in integrated urban mobility designed to address the transport needs of the future.

The partnership follows the opening of Uber’s latest Advanced Technologies Center, its first research and development hub outside North America, in which it plans to invest more than €20 million (£17.5 million) over the next five years. This centre will collaborate with l’X in a number of research areas focused on using artificial intelligence to address issues in aviation and electric transport.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive officer, said that he was “excited to partner with École Polytechnique to shape the future of urban mobility, on the ground and in the air”, while Jacques Biot, president of École Polytechnique, commented that “to design novel autonomous three-dimensional transportation systems, build intelligent networks to implement them and make them acceptable [to] society, l'X will mobilise its pluridisciplinary research centre and will, via this chair, contribute to the education of new talents to serve mobility industry and services”.

matthew.reisz@timeshighereducation.com