Uber will pick up ride-hailing passengers with autonomous cars in a test beginning in Pittsburgh next month. Pittsburgh is the home of Carnegie Mellon University:
Starting later this month, Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved. Google, widely regarded as the leader in the field, has been testing its fleet for several years, and Tesla Motors offers Autopilot, essentially a souped-up cruise control that drives the car on the highway. Earlier this week, Ford announced plans for an autonomous ride-sharing service. But none of these companies has yet brought a self-driving car-sharing service to market.
Uber's Pittsburgh fleet, which will be supervised by humans in the driver's seat for the time being, consists of specially modified Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles outfitted with dozens of sensors that use cameras, lasers, radar, and GPS receivers. Volvo Cars has so far delivered a handful of vehicles out of a total of 100 due by the end of the year. The two companies signed a pact earlier this year to spend $300 million to develop a fully autonomous car that will be ready for the road by 2021.
Uber also acquired self-driving truck startup Otto.
It is not clear whether Uber users will be able to opt out of getting the surprise autonomous Volvo SUVs sent to them (due to privacy or safety concerns), but rides in the autonomous cars will be free during the Pittsburgh test.
Also at NYT, WSJ, TechCrunch, and The Verge.
Previously: Uber Testing Driverless Car in Pittsburgh
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:30PM
Actually ... they only place I use Uber it does require a destination for some situations (before allowing you to 'hail' an uber).
Specifically when arriving to Jakarta at the airport (CGK) you must specify a destination to hail an Uber.
Also you may find (frequently) that outside of the Airport specifying a destination can either hinder or help your changes of
getting an Uber to show up .. many drivers will either ignore you after accepting the ride and/or contact you and demand a
destination .. if they don't like where you are going (ride too short, or not in a direction they want to go) then they will cancel
or just ignore you until you cancel.
So my point is that they can turn on "destination required" for all locations and probably should anyway ... then find a better way
to convince drivers to not accept requests unless they intend to actually perform the service.