Uber will soon offer free rides to the Pittsburgh public in autonomous Volvo cars
Transport app Uber is primed to reveal the work developed by its extensive autonomous vehicle research in the coming weeks.
Volvo
Back in May, the company started testing an autonomous Ford Fusion in Pittsburg – the result of a joined partnership between the company and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.
Now, Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that a soft launch of the car will occur in Pittsburgh with the autonomous vehicles supervised by a driver. One change however is that the base-vehicle will now be a Volvo XC90.
Uber is reportedly hoping to replace one million drivers with the cars, ensuring driver capacity at all times regardless of surge pricing. To incentivize passengers, rides in the cars will be free, representing one of the most prominent AI car tests the US has seen to date.
Hakan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo, said: "This alliance places Volvo at the heart of the current technological revolution in the automotive industry.”
Notably, Uber is free to work with other car makers in this field, its relationship with Volvo is not exclusive.