Uber unveiled its first driverless vehicle last May, which had been testing in the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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This history makes Volvo the ideal company to champion the idea of a driverless auto.
According to Sky News, a deal with Volvo worth an estimated £228m has also been announced by the company – the details of which involve the vehicle manufacturer providing SUV’s for Uber’s self-driving research. He was also on Google’s self-driving vehicle team.
He said, “the minute it was clear to us that our friends in Mountain View were going to be getting in the ride-sharing space, we needed to make sure there is an alternative [self-driving car]”.
Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said the technology is necessary to lower the cost of ride hailing and auto ownership, even if it means the future loss of jobs among Uber’s 1.5 million active drivers world-wide.
Both Volvo Cars and Uber have contributed a combined $300 million to the project. Both companies will use the same base vehicles for the next step in their autonomous driving strategies.
“The city of Pittsburgh has been fully supportive of Uber’s efforts to expand its program and advance innovation”. The same group also includes Internet giant Google, American automotive manufacturer Ford and Uber’s competitor Lyft.
Ride-sharing service Uber will offer the option of hailing a self-driving vehicle in the United States – the first time the technology has been offered to the general public.
But in an interview with The Associated Press, CEO Travis Kalanick said development of the vehicles is paramount for the San Francisco company, which has grown exponentially after starting seven years ago.
The initial test phase will take place in Pittsburgh later in August where Uber users will be able to hail one of these self-driving cars. Volvo already has numerous developments in the autonomous field – with fleets of semi-autonomous XC90 crossovers in Sweden, the United Kingdom and China.
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Meanwhile, Otto said in its post: “By joining forces with Uber we can fast forward to the future”.
