Uber unleashes experimental self-driving car on streets of Pittsburgh

Ride hailing company Uber confirmed Thursday that it is testing a self-driving, hybrid Ford Fusion on the streets of Pittsburgh, bringing the ride-sharing giant one step closer to an autonomous future.

Saddled with a large black apparatus reminiscent of a surface-to-air missile launcher, the car from Uber's Advanced Technologies Center will be collecting mapping data as well as testing its self-driving capabilities in the Steel City. It comes outfitted with a variety of sensors, including radars, laser scanners and high resolution cameras to map details of the environment. But it won't be alone: a human will be in the driver's seat "monitoring operations."

Uber is still in the early days of its self-driving efforts. It says it's currently focused on getting the technology right and ensuring the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers. The company has warned local officials and law enforcement about its testing.

Home to Uber's Advanced Technology Center, Pittsburgh was an obvious choice for pilot. Uber also thinks the city is a good environment in which to test self-driving cars, with its variety of road types, traffic patterns and weather conditions.

Apple has been widely rumored for some time now to be working on its own automotive initiative, dubbed "Project Titan." It is reportedly eyeing an 800,000 square foot property for the project in the San Francisco Bay Area, and most recently, it made a billion-dollar investmentin Didi Chuxing, which some have seen as further evidence of its ambitions in the automotive area. Didi is a direct competitor of Uber and controls the Chinese ride-hailing market just as Uber dominates in the West.

19 Comments

ireland 17435 comments · 18 Years

About 8 years ago

Or Uber does publicity stunt to get more investors on board with a view to eventually acquiring the knowledge to build a self-driving car.

Uber CEO is kind of slimey and it's I'm sure a major reason why Apple aren't interested in partnering with them and instead went with Didi: http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/ I doubt the fact that Digi is larger is the reason at all. When Apple says the companies have similar philosophies they are I believe sincere.

josha 899 comments · 14 Years

Two social problems here.
Self driving cars have a long way to go to be accepted here. Also I expect driverless cars will NEVER be accepted.
Uber will NEVER be accepted here as a trusted cab company, unless they comply with taxi regulations.
-End of story here! :#

foggyhill 4767 comments · 10 Years

I HATE Uber and their slime ball owners.
They're getting their ass kicked in the province of Quebec and rightly so. They respect no laws and use that fact in their business plan.
First they were high and mighty and now their groveling like little babies.

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

People who drive for a living won't have much of a career left unless they offer something really different, like super valet service.

nolamacguy 4750 comments · 10 Years

josha said:

Two social problems here.
Self driving cars have a long way to go to be accepted here. Also I expect driverless cars will NEVER be accepted.
Uber will NEVER be accepted here as a trusted cab company, unless they comply with taxi regulations.
-End of story here!

on your second point -- the comments in New Orleans indicate people are tired of our crappy cab companies who have lied and broken the rules (give no arrival estimates, routinely refuse local fares, fought credit card machines, lie about credit card machines, etc) for decades, and are welcoming uber. I'm one of them. I don't care for uber' corporate leadership, but their service model is the right one.