In what might appear to prove a counterintuitive lesson, Uber offloaded its self-driving technology to Aurora for $4 billion, and Lyft sold its self-driving car division to Toyota for $550 million. But the two didn’t sell off their autonomous technology to simply make a quick buck in light of a new opportunity or as means to quickly gain capital to combat slowed growth or declining revenues…

On the face, it may appear as though Uber and Lyft changed their minds on driverless cars, giving up completely. But their standpoint didn’t change–where they stand to enter the market did. What they saw was an opportunity to make an immediate short-term return on their investment of the technology that powers autonomous vehicles, which fuels their long-term game plan. In other words, Uber and Lyft won’t be the first to market, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have plans to go to market.
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