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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Uber is testing a driverless Ford Fusion on the streets on Pittsburgh [bbc.com] 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 [uber.com] on Uber's website.

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