Uber is testing a driverless Ford Fusion on the streets on Pittsburgh in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. It's all part of a plan to liberate itself of the drivers/contractors/employees/meatparts it currently depends on:
Uber's big inconvenience is the fact it needs drivers, and so this line of research is about eliminating that final piece of the puzzle to boost profits even more. Uber isn't alone - rival ride-sharing service Lyft announced a tie-up with Chevrolet to use autonomous driving as well, but it's Uber that seems unstoppable in its goal to be the dominant force in global ground travel.
Uber said in its statement that real-world testing was "critical to our efforts to develop self-driving technology", and explained a trained driver was still monitoring operations in the car at all times. The company has also recently joined a coalition with Google and several car makers to help steer the regulations needed to make self-drive cars a reality. Together with Ford, Volvo and Lyft, they aim to lobby lawmakers and regulators on some of the legal barriers that would need to be changed before driverless cars could hit the roads.
Statement on Uber's website.
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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
Uber plans to purchase 24,000 Volvo XC90 SUVs between 2019 and 2021. The number is set to change:
Uber has entered into an agreement with carmaker Volvo to purchase 24,000 of its XC90 SUVs between 2019 and 2021 to form a fleet of autonomous vehicles, according to Bloomberg News. The XC90 is the base of Uber's latest-generation self-driving test car, which features sensors and autonomous driving computing capability installed by Uber after purchase on the XC90 vehicle.
The deal is said to be worth around $1.4 billion, per the Financial Times, with the XC90 starting at $46,900 in the U.S. in terms of base model consumer pricing. Uber is already testing the XC90 in Arizona, San Francisco and Pittsburgh in trials with safety drivers on board to help refine and improve their software. Uber also paired up with Volvo to jointly develop autonomous driving and a vehicle ready for self-driving implementation, with investment from both sides committed last year.
Also at NYT.
Previously: Uber Testing Driverless Car in Pittsburgh
Uber to Begin Picking Up Passengers With Autonomous Cars Next Month
Uber's Self-Driving Cars to be Tested in San Francisco
(Score: 4, Interesting) by archfeld on Friday May 20 2016, @06:59PM
I use cabs around town when I am working because of parking issues, but I won't use Uber. I know the cab drivers, I know what it will cost, and I know they are insured for the job they are performing, and I know that they will know where they are going. None of those apply to Uber.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday May 20 2016, @07:36PM
Yeah, uber is fighting tooth and nail against the legal realities of what they're doing. Eventually they'll either be displaced by someone who can do the same thing a in a regulated environment or get subsumed with local lawsuits.
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday May 20 2016, @08:23PM
If a car can drive itself flawlessly, what is the argument for taxi regulations? At that point all those regulations should go fuck themselves. I'm not a libertarian by a long shot, but I abhor rent-seeking behavior.
You might not like Uber because XYZ, none of which will apply if they use automatons cars. The taxi drivers will have no leg to stand on, and no one will pay double the price for fare just to give some chump with 0 skills a job. That's right, driving a car is absolutely a worthless skill. A dog can do it. [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2016, @10:09PM
Since cars cannot drive themselves flawlessly, what is your argument?
Driving a cab badly requires little skill. Driving a cab well, in an urban environment, for over 8 hours running, evidently requires exactly the sort of skill you resent having to pay for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2016, @11:17PM
Driverless cars see more than humans do. Driverless cars do not become fatigued, irritated, impatient, or stressed out like humans do. Driverless cars are purpose built. Frankly, humans are very poorly equipped for driving.
I will be very interested to see how Uber's cars do in winter. So far we know that Google's cars do very well in sunny California.
While we can admire the spirit of the modern day John Henry, the steam-powered hammer is coming.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday May 22 2016, @02:43AM
I agree. In the 'near' future automated cabs will solve most of the issues people have with taxis, or uber, or whatever service will come out, but that time isn't yet and probably won't be for more than 10 years regardless of how many fluff news reports or what smoke Google is blowing. Direct connecting drivers to other drivers works fine in busy areas during normal hours, but not so well in a crappy industrial area at 03:30 following a hardware service call.
As for driving being a worthless skill I disagree. Track day racing is just plain FUN, and the skill needed to drift or handle skids and competitive driving is substantial, but that will always be the niche thing it is today.
http://www.speedsf.com/ [speedsf.com]
FUN FUN FUN
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2016, @09:54PM
I want to see them replaced by nobody. Literally nobody. Instead of a middle-man we should have a way for riders to directly contract with drivers. There is no technical reason that can't be done. Its just Uber (and AirBnB, etc) all just sitting in the middle collecting fees and trying to convince us they earned it.
I saw a recent article that suggested blockchain tech might be useful for the general case of disintermediation. It gives you a distributed, tamper-proof record of 'contracts' between buyers and sellers
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday May 20 2016, @09:28PM
Not me. I can barely talk to the cab drivers because their English is so bad, I have no idea how much it'll cost because they'll drive in circles or turn off the taximeter and just make up a price on the spot, their cars are nasty inside, I have to wait 30-60 minutes for them to show up (if they ever do), and they only take cash "because the card reader is broken". Fuck the cabs. I can't wait for RoboUber. A clean car that takes the most optimal route with the cost stated up-front, that shows up within minutes of me using a phone app to call it, doesn't have an annoying driver to interact with, and has a big company behind it with deep pockets in case I need to sue it (and hence avoids egregious behavior that'll expose it to a lawsuit, just like all big corporations). What's not to like?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Archon V2.0 on Friday May 20 2016, @09:38PM
> I know the cab drivers,
Small town?
> I know what it will cost,
Glad you do. I don't, because my last 3 trips I got drivers who somehow screwed it up. One decided the best way to go north was to skip the three roads heading north and take one that headed south for a while first. One ended up turning at the wrong spot and I had to endure the corrections needed to get back onto the major street leading to my destination. One took a route that was a literal L and turned it into something more of a W, with extra lefts on lights that had no left turn signal - I got to pay extra to sit there though multiple light sequences and watch my driver play Angry Birds.
> and I know they are insured for the job they are performing,
... as long as you check the displayed photo and make sure the driver is the guy with the hack license. Otherwise, well, hope you weren't in a hurry 'cause you'll have to call another dispatcher and get another cab.
> and I know that they will know where they are going.
Wow. I don't know where you live but you have GOOD drivers. See above: I have seen a driver get turned the wrong way in a city with numbered streets.
Personally I hate the idea of Uber and would never use them, but you are either blessed with an excellent cab service or are overselling the competition.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Friday May 20 2016, @07:44PM
I will never use a big corporate service that in turn uses autonomous vehicles to take me anywhere. I actually like the idea of a person driving me, as I can trust that person to not deliberately kill us (99.9999% of the time).
Aside from the fact of completely giving up my privacy to Uber, having them know where and when I travel, there are the safety concerns of autonomous travel. We can't secure jack shit, and you can't argue with a machine programmed by other people. I have no influence on such a machine, not even in an emergency. Does the machine care it picked a route off the side of a cliff?
Terrorists drove a plane into a building. What's stopping them one day from driving 1 million vehicles into obstructions at 80mph within 1 minute of each other? What kind of penalties would be exacted against the Uber executives who refused to properly fund cyber security platforms, as is the penchant of all executives?
I can barely trust people as it is, and I certainly don't trust equipment programmed by big corporations. Making the entire vehicle open source from the ground up with no binaries/blobs would be a start, but that will never happen with the auto industry. Neither do I trust captured regulatory bodies either, as I have first hand experience of how much they don't give a shit about the average person being hurt by their inept policies.
All of that being said, I would refuse such a service from Uber because we can't have this entire country automated with a few service jobs left. The economy will start to implode when that is combined with a steadfast refusal on the part of corporations and government to provide living wages to people. If we let them automate everything at our expense, who is going to be left to afford a ride to anywhere to then purchase anything?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday May 20 2016, @08:20PM
Programmers and mechanics, choose your future : P
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Friday May 20 2016, @09:39PM
That's why we need Universal Basic Income, instead of pushing inefficient make-work projects on everyone.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 20 2016, @11:30PM
Rtfa, they actually gave some people an uber allowance in a small trial which I found interesting.
Is threaded view of comments messed up for anybody or just me?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2016, @09:04PM
A. Last month I made $500, but I could have easily made 10 times that amount
- Uber radio spot
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Friday May 20 2016, @10:24PM
Uber is asset-light now. They are often subsidized by drivers who aren't recapping minimum wage plus wear-and-tear on their cars. Why would they want to own all those vehicles?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 20 2016, @11:28PM
It doesn't have to be asset light. They can leverage their $60+ billion valuation and billions of infused cash to put driverless cars on the road and eliminate the huge cut that drivers make (about 80% apparently). Uber will go from 20% cut to nearly 100%... and will get better deals on maintenance than individual drivers would, particularly if they have large amounts of only a few driverless models.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday May 21 2016, @03:17AM
Pittsburgh's streets are unusually crooked and narrow in a lot of places, primarily due to the topography. There are some downtown areas I could imagine being simple, but a lot of the hills involve streets with no center lines, sometimes not enough room for 2 cars to pass (and if they're parked up, it's even more impossible), and blind corners.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2016, @08:37PM
Somehow, I think this is more of a CMU project than Ueber. Corporate sponsors come and go, but university researchers dedicate large parts of their lives to these projects.