One of America’s most successful start-ups, Uber, will soon be launching driverless cars for people to order.
Uber is a car service, created by Travis Kalanick, much like taking a taxi, but cleaner, safer, and is requested using the Uber app on a smart phone. Uber has become popular within the country because it allows people to get a ride to and from anywhere, whenever. When one “orders” an Uber to pick them up, they can see their driver’s location, name, and picture before actually getting into the vehicle.
According to Information Week, in late August, the car service plans to launch a program, which will allow people to order driverless cars in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In order to safely test the program, Uber will have two employees sitting in the front seat of each car just in case something goes wrong. The company is offering free rides to customers that are willing to test out this new program during the first few weeks.
The driverless cars will be filled with multiple cameras and an advanced Google Maps GPS systems to ensure the safety of the passenger. If successful, Uber will attempt to broaden this program to other cities.
Some feel that this program will not amount to anything significant because there is still a driver in the car.
“You still have to have a person with a driver’s license behind the wheel of an autonomous vehicle,” said Tim McNulty, spokesman for Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto.
Others are worried that this program will not be safe because they have no control of the vehicle and fear that the technology could glitch or fail.
“There could be an accident or an emergency and you won’t be able to tell the car to stop or to move out of the way for something. It’s dangerous because even if there is good technology and someone controlling the car, they cannot control what other cars are doing,” said junior Sophia Eaker.
Uber is already a multi-billion dollar company, and their driverless car program has not even begun. According to Kelly Sheridan, a writer for Venture Beat, it is rumored that they are already working with car companies, like Volvo, to build specific cars for this program.
However, many also feel that this program could be the new future of automotive vehicles and could lead to less awkward interactions with Uber drivers.
“I think it could be interesting and cool. There would also be no uncomfortable small talk during a forty minute drive with a stranger. It’s risky; an alternative could be having a wall in cars that is actually between the passenger and the driver, but that may just be worse,” said senior Matthew Baeza.
