Uber to open research labs for self-driving cars in Pittsburg
Taxi-hailing app Uber is to open a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh as it begins research into automated cars.
The partnership between Uber and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will see the creation of an Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh tasked with “the development of key long-term technologies that advance Uber’s mission of bringing safe, reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere”.
In particular the firm will work on campus with the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) to research mapping and autonomy technology, which will see the firm experiment with driverless cars for the first time.
Jeff Holden, chief product officer at Uber, said: “We are excited to join the community of Pittsburgh and partner with the experts at CMU, whose breadth and depth of technical expertise, particularly in robotics, are unmatched. As a global leader in urban transportation, we have the unique opportunity to invest in leading edge technologies to enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale.
Andrew Moore, dean of the school of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, added: “This collaboration and the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center represent an important investment in building for the long term of Uber.”
“We look forward to partnering with Uber as they build out the Advanced Technologies Center and to working together on real-world applications, which offer very interesting new challenges at the intersections of technology, mobility, and human interactions.”
Uber's new foray into automated cars will pit it against the likes of Google.