I was behind the wheel when a self-driving Uber failed - here's what happens
Business Insider/Corey Protin
Uber launched its second pilot program in San Francisco last week, but the day it launched, a car ran straight through a red light.
Uber has since said the incident was due to human error, but it's not clear whether that means a person drove through the light or failed to stop the car from doing so while it was in autonomous mode. Either way, Uber knows its cars will fail from time-to-time, which is why a safety driver and engineer sit upfront while the cars autonomously drive people.
(Uber shut down the San Francisco pilot program on Wednesday after the California DMV revoked the cars' registration.)
Uber let us get behind the wheel for the launch of its pilot program in Pittsburgh in September, and we got to see firsthand what it's like when the car fails and needs a driver to take over.
Keep in mind that Uber used self-driving Volvo XC90s for the San Francisco pilot instead of the self-driving Ford Fusions in Pittsburgh. As a result, the interface we experienced is slightly different from the one in the Volvo cars.
But you can scroll down to get a basic sense of what it's like when the robot cars need help:
- A centenarian who starts her day with gentle exercise and loves walks shares 5 longevity tips, including staying single
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- FSSAI in process of collecting pan-India samples of Nestle's Cerelac baby cereals: CEO
- 7 Nutritious and flavourful tiffin ideas to pack for school
- India's e-commerce market set to skyrocket as the country's digital economy surges to USD 1 Trillion by 2030
- Top 5 places to visit near Rishikesh
- Indian economy remains in bright spot: Ministry of Finance
- A surprise visit: Tesla CEO Elon Musk heads to China after deferring India visit
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market