After pulling all of its self-driving cars off public roads, laying off all the vehicle operators in Pittsburgh and San Francisco and shutting down its Arizona self-driving operation, Uber is very gradually beginning to prepare to start testing self-driving cars again.
Mapping out city streets is essentially square one for testing self-driving cars thats a tough spot to be in as a company with serious ambitions for developing autonomous technology, especially in the face of massive competition.
This gradual start in Pittsburgh also gives Uber time to implement some of the safety features and changes recommended by an internal team of experts that conducted a review of the companys self-driving development and operation.
Those changes may seem small individually, but together they point to a significant change in how Uber is thinking about self-driving. While much of the inception and some of the way in which the company later operated its self-driving efforts was fueled by competition specifically with Google parent company Alphabet the company is now introducing features and technology that prioritize safety.
Specifically, Uber is going back to having two people in each car, and will be monitoring its safety drivers the people who are designated to take over control of the car as needed in real time.
Its not common for autonomous test cars to be driven with just one person behind the wheel so early in the technologys development.
Companies building self-driving cars pitch it as a potentially life-saving technology, but those companies still have a lot to prove.
Original article