Want to ride an unmanned taxi? Go to the USA

In the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, a whole fleet of unmanned taxis has appeared.

Features of the new taxi

Initially, on the streets of the city appeared four unmanned cars Ford Fusion, and their benefits were immediately appreciated by customers. For the safety of customers in such taxis, there is still a driver's seat, and the driver himself accompanies the trip itself. Nevertheless, machines are able to move around the city more or less autonomously, using seven traffic light cameras, a radar system, an advanced computer system, and 20 lasers used to display the environment.

Trial project

Now, unmanned taxis are only available "for the most loyal customers of Pittsburgh" as a pilot project. Nevertheless, there are global plans that they will carry out in the future on the roads 24 hours a day.

Dreams of unmanned taxis became reality only a few months after the acquisition of Otto, a startup for an unmanned truck, and a partnership with Volvo, whose goal is to develop a new generation of cars without drivers.

The choice of representatives of the company that developed the unmanned taxi, fell on Pittsburgh, as its narrow streets are quite difficult to drive. Raffi Krikorian is director of the Center for Advanced Technologies Uber, who developed a taxi, said that if unmanned taxis can master driving in Pittsburgh, then they will have a good chance to get accustomed to other cities in the world. In addition, Uber relied on numerous studies of autonomous vehicles conducted at the University of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

Objectives of creation

"Such taxis are a step forward," said Anthony Lewandowski, the founder of the Otto partner company. Testing plays a crucial role in the success of this technology. Creating a viable alternative to a personal car is essential for the future.

Of course, representatives of the company can not accurately predict what the future is for their project. Nevertheless, unmanned taxis have a huge potential for the implementation of the company's further mission, as well as improving the life of society as a whole. Among these goals is the reduction in the number of accidents, the release of 20% of the urban area, which is currently used for car parking, and getting rid of traffic jams in which a person spends trillions of hours every year.

Uber is not the first company to send unmanned taxis to the streets of the city. Only in August was launched a similar pilot project in Singapore with electric vehicles from Mitsubishi.