Neither party is directly commenting on this sudden shift. However, they've so far been optimistic about what the partnership will mean. CMU's director has argued that the "slightly negative" loss of employees would be worth it as the robotics industry "matured." Uber, meanwhile, just confirmed that it's leasing a giant workspace in Pittsburgh to help its new recruits get their self-driving vehicle efforts off the ground toward the end of the year. The hiring campaign may have set back the university's studies, but it's clear that there's no turning back.

Update: TechCrunch caught word of the poaching efforts earlier in the year, though it wasn't clear at the time what the culture was like or that Uber was going to lease a larger facility for its autonomous car team.

[Image credit: Getty Images]