PITTSBURGH–Self-driving cars, which have the potential to radically change credit union auto lending, continue to get closer with Uber announcing last week it will begin testing a fleet of 100 self-driving vehicles here.
The goal is to move the self-driving technology out of safe test environments and into more rigorous, real-life environments such as Pittsburgh, which has more than 400 bridges, snow, pedestrians and everyday traffic with which the test vehicles will need to contend.
Google, Apple, other tech firms and all of the major vehicle manufacturers are in various stages and partnerships in testing the technology.
In the test in Pittsburgh, Uber users will be able to hail a ride in a driverless car. However, to help allay concerns and to comply to with state law, which requires a driver behind the wheel, Uber will have two trained safety drivers on each ride.
Earlier this month, Uber announced it was acquiring Otto, a tech start-up that makes self-driving trucks, in a move that Uber said gives it “one of the strongest autonomous engineering groups in the world.” In Pittsburgh, Uber has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, which has three decades of building automation technology.
Google reported in June that the approximately 50 autonomous vehicles it operates have driven 1.7 million miles without a fatal accident.