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Uber Expands Driverless-Car Push With Deal For 24,000 Volvos (bloomberg.com)
Uber agreed to buy 24,000 sport utility vehicles from Volvo to form a fleet of driverless autos. According to Bloomberg, "The XC90s, priced from $46,900 at U.S. dealers, will be delivered from 2019 to 2021 in the first commercial purchase by a ride-hailing provider." Uber will add its own sensors and software to permit pilot-less driving. From the report: Uber's order steps up efforts to replace human drivers, the biggest cost in its on-demand taxi service. The autonomous fleet is small compared with the more than 2 million people who drive for Uber but reflects dedication to the company's strategy of developing self-driving cars. "This new agreement puts us on a path toward mass-produced, self-driving vehicles at scale," Jeff Miller, Uber's head of auto alliances, told Bloomberg News. "The more people working on the problem, we'll get there faster and with better, safer, more reliable systems."
Seriously reading through the majority of the comments that list inane things like "what about children crossing the road?", "what about cats and dogs?", "what if there's an ambulance?", "what if the road is blocked and there's construction work, how does GPS work then?"
I mean seriously do you guys have no understanding of information systems?
To those of you think driverless cars are too hard, and they can't possibly work, just watch, the only issues driverless cars will have will be trust, in the same way people trusted a horse and cart over a car 100 years ago.... The technology is already all here and those who understand it know that driverless cars will be safer and result in less congestion than roads filled with cars driven by people.
Welcome to the 21st century.