Mubasher: A group of investors led by SoftBank and Toyota is in discussions to invest up to $1 billion in ride-hailing giant Uber’s autonomous vehicle division, a news report said.

In the light of the investment, the Uber unit would be valued at a range from $5 billion to $10 billion, Thomson Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the deliberations.

The funds would provide a cash injection for Uber’s self-driving programme, which is costing the start-up hundreds of millions of dollar without achieving revenue.

The report came at the time when Uber was wagering on a transition to autonomous vehicles to eliminate the need to pay drivers.

Such investment could underscore the leading rideshare service firm’s value as it plans for a stock market debut in which its value could exceed $100 billion.

It is worth noting that Toyota invested $500 million into Uber last year to work on developing driverless cars.