Company Uber, established under the eponymous application for mobile devices and is designed to search, order and pay for a taxi and private drivers, decided in some way to redirect its forces and impose Google compete in the creation of unmanned vehicles. It is possible that in the near future on the streets of American cities will be a fleet of unmanned taxi.
Uber representatives noted that developing this area they will not be alone, and with the support of Carnegie - Mellon University, in partnership with which both sides are planning to create a Center for Advanced Technology Uber (Uber Advanced Technologies Center) in the city of Pittsburgh. Some of the future projects of the center of advanced technologies will include research and development of autonomous vehicles and automotive safety systems.
"The partnership agreement with Uber allow the best specialists on our part and on the part of Carnegie - Mellon collectively pursue the development of advanced technologies aimed at the development of automotive safety systems and autonomous movement of vehicles," - said in an official company blog where added that on the occasion of signing the agreement in Pittsburgh in the near future will be held specially for the occasion timed event.
It should be noted that the rumors about this company went before, so the announcement of the partnership should not be a special surprise. Last May, CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick said in an interview that one of the inevitable future direction of the company may be the development of self-cars.
"The reason why the Uber can be very expensive to use the application, is that you are not just paying for the car, which is carried out on a trip. You have to pay for hiring the guy who runs this car "- said in an interview Kalanik at a press conference Code Conference.
"If no one managed machine, respectively, and the cost of using the application would have been lower. She would have been lower than the possession of own car. So, the challenge is to make the cost of using the application for all cheaper than the cost of owning a car self. "
Then some media pointed out that although this statement is not quite fit in with the policy of the company that offers to earn the driver's side, it can be a direct attempt to hiring taxi drivers and drivers provided by other road service with a guarantee that with this company they will be able to earn more. In turn Kalanik rejected these claims, explaining it by the fact that in this case you need to "more than a dozen years on the development of the business."
According to the publication The Verge, Uber is one of the few companies which, along with Google, Tesla and several other automakers have found a way and lead projects that make for their cars do not require drivers. However, the success of these projects will depend on the ability to solve the problems that they face. We are talking about the development of computer technology, capable of identifying and respond to objects, objects and people on the road, the development of radar systems, capable to adapt to the weather conditions, as well as in the automatic order to pass and meet new government regulations on road traffic.
It should be noted that the news about the desire to do Uber Autonomous car came with a message from an information publishing Bloomberg, who told about the desire to create Google and promote similar Uber taxi service. This is despite the information on Google's Uber investments amounting to $ 258 million in August 2013 and the occupation of General Counsel David Drummond Google post on the board of directors of the company Uber. In May of the same Google began offering an opportunity to taxi Uber through its service Google Maps.