“We really feel that Pittsburgh is the double black diamond of driving”, said Raffi Krikorian, director of Uber‘s Advanced Technologies Center. Its mission: to make self-driving Ubers a reality.
Advertisement
Starting Wednesday morning, a select few Uber customers can hail a ride in a self-driving auto as part of the company’s Pittsburgh pilot. An Uber spokesperson added that customers are notified that they’re being recorded in a message “they receive before ever taking a ride”. Recode reported that Grab would most “likely contribute the match-making technology it uses to pair riders with the closest drivers in an autonomous self-driving network”. It’s clear the future is still a long way off. I unstrapped myself from a set of thick seat belts with embedded airbags and swapped places with the safety driver. The turn signal flicked on, and we soon turned right onto the 31st Street Bridge.
During my ride, most of which I spent as a passenger in [the cars] back seat, my safety engineer proved his worth. We go maybe one or two miles an hour over the speed limit. It’s a vehicle that you don’t have to own or deal with parking or maintenance that shows up, picks you up and takes you where you want to go.
In a USA TODAY test drive, the Fusion smoothly navigated numerous bustling urban streets of Pittsburgh, breezing over the Three Sisters bridges above the Allegheny River and safely avoiding bicyclists and walkers on vibrant Penn Avenue. I watched as the wheel turned itself, carefully maneuvering us through crowded streets and around other cars and pedestrians. That is, until the Ford SUV in front of me stopped without warning.
Uber executives are watching to see how the cars handle Pittsburgh’s notoriously tricky driving conditions to determine when fully driverless vehicles will be ready to hit the roads. In Pennsylvania, it’s not exactly clear what the record is, though they say they haven’t had any accidents, just because there are no rules saying they have to tell you if there is one.
The goal, Uber officials say, is to get to zero interventions, and no technician along for the ride. The driver says the vehicle could have navigated that situation, but in the interest of safety he made a decision to go manual.
On June 25, 2016 in New York City, for example, Uber had almost 30,000 drivers and performed close to 180,000 rides that day.
Now, when customers in Pittsburgh, Pa., hail an UberX, some will be matched with one of the company’s self-driving vehicles. Pretty cool. But not terribly practical yet.
More than two years ago Uber – like most in the vehicle business – identified autonomous driving technology as the springboard for the next stage of growth.
Advertisement
For me, there’s nothing alarming about riding in a self-driving auto. Uber did not even have to ask for regulatory permission to perform its planned beta test, although the company chose to work with local regulators prior to rolling out the program.
