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Uber’s Driverless Car Service: The First Sign of Self-Driving Company Cars?
19 September 2016
We’ve been hearing a lot about self-driving cars in the news recently, whether it’s about the challenges of meeting strict regulations, the conundrums they face i.e. the Trolley problem, or even the slight slip up and crash in testing exercises.
All of this would hint that it may be a while until we see driverless vehicles on our roads. But the car-sharing and transportation giant Uber has defied this belief and launched the first fleet of their groundbreaking driverless car service.
For the past two years, the company has been testing the cars in the US on the challenging roads of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Each vehicle is equipped with cameras, rotating lasers, and other sensors on the roof. These build up an accurate 3D map of the surrounding environment so the car can travel down a road and instantly adapt to any object that enters its vicinity.
The cars are technically automated, however, just to be safe, the Uber rides come with two technicians to make sure everything goes to plan. One is there to monitor the car’s behaviour, while the other sits with their hands hovering around the wheel, ready to take over in any tight spots or if any problems occur.
Uber are deploying a handful of Ford Fusion hybrids this week to select customers, with over a dozen more ready and waiting to add to the flow.
It’s a bold move that many believe will put them ahead of rivals such as Apple, Google and Tesla in getting self-drive vehicles out to the public. But the real question is, is this the work of an overzealous company trying to get an edge over competitors? Or could this small experiment be the mark of something much greater?
A taxi service without the cabbies
The vehicles may come with technicians, but Uber states the demonstration rides up to this point have shown they are able to handle almost any situation, and even to be on par with human drivers.
Of course, self-driving technology is not yet perfected, and there is also the risk of malfunctioning equipment. However, the technicians are actually there, Uber officials say, to protect their passengers, record data, and satisfy current state regulations that require at least one driver to be in the car.
Uber plans to reduce the technicians down to one, but their goal is for zero interventions and ultimately a technician free ride.
And Uber aren’t the only ones who have self-driving vehicles on the road; Singapore startup nuTonomy beat them to being the first and put several cars on the road at the end of August.
Unlike the experiment in Singapore, which is limited to a small, controlled area, Uber are taking on a major US city with every imaginable obstacle – steep hills, bridges, narrow streets, and busy highways.
What’s more, Uber also boast the capability to crunch billions of miles of data on road and driving conditions from its network of drivers. This can all be fed back into their self-driving vehicle systems and count towards improving the safety of their passengers.
Uber's vision of a world of taxis with no drivers may still be a while away, but trusting the lives of their customers to automated cars says a lot about how the technology has developed. And in terms of smaller, private fleets of self-driving vehicles, it’s a positive sign that they may be available a lot sooner than you think.
If you’d like to find out about our fleet management service or our other leasing options, leave us a comment, send us an email at info@marshall-leasing.co.uk, or call us 01480 414541.
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