This is nonsense. What if this is research around problems they need to solve in order to improve their self-driving car? Because clearly that's the goal here

This is nonsense. What if this is research around problems they need to solve in order to improve their self-driving car? Because clearly that's the goal here. Should they tell investors to patiently wait while some academic comes up with a solution to their problem? If I were VC with stakes in uber, and they wouldn't be researching this area, I would be pretty mad.