Starting later this month, Uber will let customers in downtown Pittsburgh call for a self-driving auto from their cell phones.
Advertisement
Uber Technologies has signed a $300 million agreement with Volvo to develop and produce a sport-utility vehicle that will be used as a self-driving taxi, or sold to consumers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Bloomberg story notes that the Volvo deal will not be an exclusive one, and that Uber plans to work with other carmakers in the future.
So far there are six self-driving Volvo XC90s being tested in Pittsburgh, according to a Volvo spokesman. A few of the 100 cars expected for delivery by the end of the year have already arrived in the Steel City.
Uber customers can’t specifically request a self-driving vehicle. Riders will be able to opt in if they want a self-driving auto, and rides will be free to those willing to do it, spokesman Matt Kallman said. “So the magic there is, you basically bring the cost below the cost of ownership for everybody, and then auto ownership goes away”, Kalanick said at the Code Conference in 2014, shortly after Google unveiled its self-driving vehicle prototype. A tablet facing the back seats explains to passengers what is going on.
Self-driving cars are not yet ready for the masses.
Carpooling firms have formed alliances with large automakers to accelerate efforts to launch an autonomous auto, a technology which depends on vehicle software and hardware working together to give a vehicle the right reflexes in traffic.
Riders will be able to identify the self-driving cars due to the bulky sensor package on the roof, and the driver not having their hands on the wheel.
Uber announced in May that it was beginning to map Pittsburgh for its self-driving vehicles.
Both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of their own autonomous auto strategies.
Pittsburgh’s government has enthusiastically embraced the new technology.
Advertisement
For the carmakers themselves, the ability of consumers to hail a cab via a simple app or hire a auto by the hour risks putting them off buying their own vehicle. There are 1.25 million global road fatalities a year, and crashes are overwhelmingly caused by human error.
