You could be sitting inside a self-driving car before the summer is out, thanks to Uber. The ride-sharing service announced it's rolling out a fleet of autonomous vehicles for its passengers by the end of the month.
Uber has teamed up with Volvo to develop modified, self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs that customers can summon at the touch of a button. The cars will initially be deployed in Pittsburgh, Bloomberg reports.
Puts the 'auto' in 'automobile'
Uber's new fleet will be the first time self-driving cars are made commercially available for ride-sharing - beating out Ford's newly announced plans to launch its own ride-share service by several years.
While this might be many's first experience in an autonomous car, the technology has been in use for quite some time - primarily the Autopilot feature on modern Tesla vehicles and Google's self-driving car.
In addition to its collaboration with Volvo, Uber also announced its acquisition of Otto, a startup developing self-driving trucks for freighting goods - further expanding the practical applications of autonomous driving.
It's too soon to tell if Uber's plans in Pittsburgh will expand, but if self-driving cabs prove to be a success, our days of awkward small talk with drivers might just come to an end.
