Starting today, some loyal users in downtown Pittsburgh will be invited to ride in a self-driving Uber, Reuters reports.
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The company is heralding it as the beginning of a new age of transportation and is pitching the technology as livesaving. The ride through downtown Pittsburgh and over some bridges went smoothly, with the auto waiting for oncoming traffic before making a turn and at one point stopping for a vehicle that was backing into a parking space.
Our Transport Agency says there are nearly 40,000 drivers in New Zealand with the passenger licence endorsement needed to drive taxis and buses.
With its harsh winters, old windy streets and ornery drivers who have earned themselves a reputation, Boston may offer a challenging test environment for autonomous cars – which is precisely what the technology requires, analysts say, if it is to gain widespread acceptance. The self-driving Fusions which Uber is making available to customers in Pittsburg will have human drivers for backup.
“I don’t see it in the short term”. Its mission: to make self-driving Ubers a reality. “We think it can help with congestion”. Others are adding autonomous features in phases, while relying on the driver to take over in certain circumstances. Some are apprehensive about involving humans as passengers while removing them as drivers before the technology has been thoroughly tested.
“Because vehicles are driving at 70 miles per hour on the highway, if something goes wrong, things could go wrong very bad, very quickly”, said Raj Rajkumar, a Carnegie Mellon engineering professor.
While Volvo will play a significant role in Uber’s transition to driverless cars, for now, users in Pittsburgh will ride in Ford Fusions that have been equipped with 20 cameras, antennas for GPS positioning, and a top-mounted lidar, which uses lasers to “see” around the vehicle and surroundings, according to Business Insider.
“We actually think of Pittsburgh as the double black diamond of driving”, Krikorian said. “If we can really tackle Pittsburgh, then we have a better chance of tackling most other cities around the world”.
Besides road conditions, Uber must also tackle people’s fears about self-driving technology.
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A study released Wednesday by the University of MI found that 23 percent of Americans wouldn’t ride in a self-driving auto.
