Be on your toes cause Uber could be bringing us self-driving car experience soon.On Thursday ride service Uber Technologies said it acquired self-driving trucks startup Otto(a start-up company less than a year old with less than 100 employees, will be for 1 percent of Uber’s valuation, if certain technical targets are met), and formed a $300 million alliance with Volvo Car Group to develop self-driving cars.Uber is also looking to expand into the trucking industry, which had revenue of about $726.4 billion in the United States in 2015, according to trade data.The initiative from Uber to engage in the development of self-driving vehicles if eventually comes trough could save them the biggest cost of paying drivers.
Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick wrote in a blogspost saying “Partnership is crucial to our self-driving strategy because Uber has no experience making cars.” Carpooling firms have formed alliances with large automakers, such as General Motors Co and ride-hailing service Lyft, to accelerate those efforts, which depend on software and hardware working together to give a vehicle the right reflexes in traffic.Uber, which has a research center in Pittsburgh,plans by the end of this month to begin a pilot program where trusted customers would be giving the chance to summon a self-driving car for use in a downtown Pittsburgh.according to informed sources.
There was no timeline given for the alliance, but the source said the goal is to develop a fully self-driving car by 2021, and that Uber, which does not plan to make its own vehicle, will align with other automakers over time.So far Otto has tested self-driving trucks for highway use only.A spokesman for U.S. safety regulator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it “continues to engage with all entities that are developing, testing and deploying automated technologies to ensure that they are advancing road safety,federal guidelines will be issued soon on development and testing of highly automated vehicles.”
