Uber shook things up with its service when it revolutionized the Taxi industry a few years back. Now most of the globe has more or less converted to Uber taxis, and they can be seen everywhere from the USA to India and China. But, now that the autonomous cars are around the corner, Uber had sensed danger and since then it has been developing its own autonomous car that would serve as a driverless taxi in the future. Recently, a prototype of sorts was completed by the Uber team and in a bold move, Uber announced that it would be introduced on the streets of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania within a few weeks.
For starters, a human driver will be present behind the wheels at all times when the car is moving on its own so that the risk of a poor AI decision can be mitigated. The taxi will then collect data for further development and integration of autonomous vehicles into the biggest Taxi service in the world. The company has already started testing with the local authorities and the Ford Fusion that they modified is ready to start.
It is ironic to see that people are used to complaining that Uber employs no drivers directly despite being the largest taxi company in the world. Now, Uber is close to eliminating the driver portion itself. Nice! The tech itself is still in the early days of its completion and Uber wants to make it as safe as possible for the passengers and people around it as well. The car is equipped with various sensors like LIDAR, high-resolution cameras and Laser guidance that can be used to create a virtual map around the vehicle.
However, the road to autonomous cars isn’t that smooth as millions of people would be put out of work and just like any such tech, they . won’t be giving up that easily. So, what do you think? Should taxis be self-driven or human hands that cause hundreds of thousands of car crashes each year are better off?
