-The Pittsburgh Business Times has exclusive photos of an Uber test vehicle that’s roaming the Pittsburgh streets, gathering data as part of the ride-sharing startup’s efforts into autonomous vehicles.
While the car itself, a Ford Fusion with “Uber Advanced Technologies Center” written on the side and a roof loaded with test equipment, is not autonomous, it’s gathering data that Uber hopes to use in future forays into self-driving cars.
-“This vehicle is part of our early research efforts regarding mapping, safety and autonomy systems,” an Uber spokesperson told The Pittsburg Business Times.
-Uber announced its Pittsburgh-based Advanced Technologies Center in February, and has staffed it with dozens of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center, an authority on autonomous driving.
-The test vehicle, which you can see here, has equipment mounted to its roof that looks very similar to the rooftop setups seen on Google-owned vehicles recently. The Verge theorizes that the Uber vehicle’s equipment includes a rotating LIDAR sensor used to map the car’s immediate surroundings.
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- Google’s Self-Driving Car Begins Public Road Testing This Summer
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- Self-Driving Cars Have Been in Four Accidents in California Since September
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- Ford Fusion Full Coverage: Tests, Reviews, Specs, Photos, and More
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Uber’s foray into self-driving cars puts it somewhat in competition with Google, one of the biggest investors in the ride-sharing startup. Google announced last week that its own autonomous cars would begin testing on public roads this summer. But Uber has a strong incentive to go autonomous: CEO Travis Kalanick points out how much cheaper Uber rides would be without pesky human drivers.
-“The reason Uber could be expensive is because you’re not just paying for the car — you’re paying for the other dude in the car,” Kalanick said at a tech conference last year. “When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle.”
-This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com via The Verge.
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