Skip to main content

Uber tests self-driving cars on Pittsburgh streets

Uber is deploying fourteen self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh in a real-world test of the technology. The cars are Ford Fusions, equipped with lasers and cameras which collect 1.4 million distance measurements per second, and a human driver to make sure the drive goes smoothly. Uber says real-world testing is critical to the success of this technology. And creating a viable alternative to individual car ownership is important to the future of cities. Uber founder Anthony Levandowski says t
September 15, 2016 Read time: 1 min
8336 Uber is deploying fourteen self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh in a real-world test of the technology. The cars are Ford Fusions, equipped with lasers and cameras which collect 1.4 million distance measurements per second, and a human driver to make sure the drive goes smoothly.

Uber says real-world testing is critical to the success of this technology. And creating a viable alternative to individual car ownership is important to the future of cities.

Uber founder Anthony Levandowski says the company’s self-driving technology has the potential to reduce accidents, free up parking space in cities and cut congestion.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Euro NCAP puts autonomous pedestrian detection to the test
    November 11, 2015
    European safety organisation Euro NCAP is introducing a new test that will check how well vehicles autonomously detect and prevent collisions with pedestrians, which it says will make it simpler for consumers and manufacturers to find out which systems work best. According to Euro NCAP, independent analysis of real world crash data in the UK and Germany indicates that the deployment of effective autonomous emergency braking systems on passenger cars could prevent one in five fatal pedestrian collisions.
  • Mobility itself is moving says cubic
    June 9, 2015
    Cubic’s Chris Bax looks at the challenges and benefits of implementing transport as a service. Imagine paying for travel in exactly the same way you buy your phone service. For example, you would pay a set amount in exchange for a monthly travel package covering up to 100km of free taxi journeys in your home city (including a guaranteed 15 minute pickup) and public transport usage within a 1,500km radius of your home. Not only would this option be cheaper than owning and maintaining your own car, you would
  • Bristol’s buses trial CycleEye detection system
    July 7, 2017
    Fusion Processing’s Jim Hutchinson looks at a two-year trial of the company’s cyclist detection system. Is cycling in a city dangerous? Well, that depends where you are and how you view statistics. Malmö is far more bike-friendly than Mumbai and the risk can either be perceived as small - one death per 29 million miles cycled in the UK in 2013 - or large - that equated to 109 deaths in the same year. Whatever your personal take on the data, the effect of these accidents can be felt indirectly too. News of c
  • Berlin to expand bike lines, approves self-driving car test
    April 12, 2017
    Officials and cycling campaigners in Berlin have agreed to budget about $53 million (€50 million) a year to expand bike use with the goal of reducing car traffic in the German capital, according to Associated Press. Berlin daily B.Z. reports that the money will be used to create protected bike lanes of the kind seen in Chicago and New York, build 100 kilometres (62 miles) of dedicate cycling highways and install 100,000 bike parking spaces. The city was once considered a haven for cyclists but has fal