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The prospect of one day having autonomous cars has been on the periphery of public attention for nearly a decade—the media has made much ado about Google’s driverless car project, and one often reads press releases from large auto companies that inform consumers of an investment in designing autonomous models. Yet, while provocative for the imagination, none of the hype surrounding autonomous vehicles seemed like it would ever quite lead to something corporeal.
But Uber Transportation is set on proving that the driverless car is far more than a distant fantasy—in fact, they have an entire fleet of autonomous cars that are set to hit the streets of Pittsburgh within the next month.
Uber’s Self-Driving Car
Uber Transportation recently made the announcement that they have, in collaboration with Volvo, created a workable fleet of autonomous cars that they feel is finally ready to test on the public. The self-driving cars will be available to anybody who needs a trip within downtown Pittsburgh. For the time being, the vehicles will be supervised by a human driver who will have the power to take control of the car should the need arise, according to Bloomberg. Rides in the trial fleet will be free for customers, but the company intends to begin charging their normal fare ($1.30 per mile) for the autonomous cabs as soon as this test run has ended.
Uber Transportation has long professed its ambition to one day deploy only automated vehicles. Two years ago, lead executives for the transportation company approached engineers from the robotics department of Carnegie Mellon University and committed themselves to a driverless future, according to a Bloomberg report. The test fleet that will hit the streets of the Steel City is the fruition of two years’ labor and planning, and if all goes well, we should expect to see them in other major cities within the year.
Driverless Cars and the Trucking Industry
Uber is the first company to introduce a tangible automated vehicle to the public. Naturally, those within the trucking industry will be keeping a close eye on the project—assuming that all goes well with the Pittsburgh fleet, the driverless car will only become a more prevalent facet of everyday life. In the not so distant future, it may be possible that the American highways will be filled with trucks that drive themselves.
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