Would you get into a ‘taxi’ with no driver? Self-driving cars have the potential to save millions of lives and improve the quality of life for people around the world. 1.3 million people die every year in car accidents, and believe it or not, 94% of those accidents involve human error.
Uber believes that self-driving cars will mean less congestion, more affordable and accessible transportation, and far fewer lives lost in car accidents on the road. The ride-sharing app company is currently launching a self-driving test vehicle at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center (ATC) in Pittsburgh with the mission to make transportation as reliable as running water — everywhere and for everyone.
The car, a hybrid Ford Fusion, will be collecting mapping data as well as testing its self-driving capabilities. When it’s in self-driving mode, a trained driver will be in the driver’s seat monitoring operations. The Uber ATC car comes outfitted with a variety of sensors including radars, laser scanners, and high resolution cameras to map details of the environment. It could roam the streets 24 hours a day and only need to stop to refuel.
Uber chose the ‘Steel City’ as the home of their Advanced Technologies Center because of its world-class engineering talent and research facilities. Pittsburgh is an ideal environment to develop and test their technology across a wide variety of road types, traffic patterns and weather conditions.
Uber has already gained permission from the Mayor of Pittsburgh to test its self driving car on the public roads to ensure that it can deal with pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers.
So does this mean that in the future you can request a ride on an app and a driverless pod arrives to take you away? Only time will tell…
Source: Uber
