UBER sending mapping cars to Mexico, looks towards driverless cars

Ride-hailing service Uber will invest $500 million in an ambitious global mapping project to wean itself off dependence on Google Maps and pave the way for driverless cars, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The San Francisco-based company is ramping up spending in new technologies such as mapping and driverless cars following new investments in the company earlier this year, the report said.

An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

Last week, Uber executive Brian McClendon, who was formerly the head of Google Maps, said the company was "doubling down" its investments in mapping. Ubber put . . .