Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

It is more a test run. It is self-driving but each vehicle will have a pilot and a co-pilot.

I'd love to sit in one of those cars and see how well the cars can drive themselves, especially during the winter. It's just a really awesome experience being in a self-driving car - it'd be amazing if you could just hail one with an app.

The acquisition of Otto is interesting. I think Anthony Levandowski is incredible and the trucking industry is perfect for automation given the state of the technology and for logistical reasons. But it seems odd that Uber wants to branch out at this point.

As someone that follows lots of tech "trying to see the future" - to me Uber has the greatest hope of bring driving to the mainstream due to a number of factors.

First, they have a lot of experience with litigation and working with local laws.

They need to replace drivers, but unlike truck drivers - Uber will drive anywhere.

Unlike trucks, there's the potential to allow the passenger to drive the car.

Many more key reasons why Uber's efforts are worth watching, but really do hope they're able to make serious progress in bring autonomous vehicles to the mainstream.

I can understand self driving cars eventually being practical on long simple roads.

But I can't even imagine how one could get to my house. My road has cars parked on both sides. Sometimes vans. Sometimes they almost block the road. Sometimes there is a car coming the other way and you have to look for a space to pull into to so they can pass, or maybe back up 1/4 of a mile. Or hope the other car does.

There are cones and roadworks quite often.

I have significant difficulty driving down there, I don't see how an automatic car could any time soon at all.

This might not be an issue if I owned the car. I could turn it off and drive down there myself but an automatic taxi couldnt do that unless there was a driver waiting in the car to do that if required. And if there is, he might as well drive it all and save thousands of [currency]

I always talk to the drivers about their feelings and so on when taking Uber. Maybe my data is skewed but most accept it as inevitable and are not worried much as they have other side jobs. The cab drivers are the ones who must be anxious. It will be really bad if they cannot be retrained for other jobs as it will add to the existing frustration around automation. We simply cannot afford to leave people out as we move on to other things. Outsourcing moved manufacturing jobs to China, our focus on climate and global warming will leading to moving out of coal leaving coal miners behind, Amazon is automating their warehouses, Self driving will leave cab drivers behind...So, how do we create new type of jobs for these people? Humanity cannot progress by leaving people behind.