Uber has introduced its pilot self driving cars on the roads of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. The company said it would have dozens of self-driving cars on the road by year-end.
However, the self driving cars will come with a safety driver and an engineer in the front to make sure the ride goes smoothly. Currently there are four self driving cars in the pilot program. Uber has invited up to 1,000 of its “most loyal” Pittsburgh customers to experience the self driving cars. The first fleet of self driving cars come a year after Uber opened an Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh.
Anthony Levandowski, Founder, Otto and VP, Self-Driving Technology, Uber, said in a blog post,
Even when these technology issues get fixed, we believe ridesharing will be a mix—with services provided by both drivers and Self-Driving Ubers. This is because of the limits of self-driving software and the skyrocketing demand for better transportation which people-powered transport is uniquely able to solve.
Uber had teamed up with Volvo last month to jointly develop self driving cars. Last month Ford announced that it is developing self driving car and plans to offer it for commercial ride-sharing in 2021. Google’s self-driving car project is going steady and has logged over 700,000 miles in the US. Meanwhile, earlier this month it was reported that Apple is rebooting its secret car project and conducting layoffs. Meanwhile, Tesla Motors is introducing an upgraded Autopilot software system following a deadly crash.