Uber To Bring Back Self-Driving Cars In California For First Time Since 2018

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Thu Feb 6, 2020, 03:24 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Guardian

California issued a permit to Uber that allows it to test self-driving vehicles on public roads, the state’s department of motor vehicles announced on Wednesday. Uber joined 65 other companies including Apple, Tesla, Lyft and Waymo, that already had authorization to test autonomous vehicles in the state.

The approval sets the stage for Uber to begin testing autonomous vehicles in California for the first time since it paused its self-driving car operations in March 2018. The company stopped testing the technology following an accident in which one of its autonomous vehicles killed a woman on an Arizona street.

California has been issuing permits to test autonomous vehicles on public roads with a driver on board since 2014 and approved the testing of self driving cars on public roads without human drivers in 2018.

An Uber spokeswoman said on Wednesday the company would start autonomous testing in San Francisco in the near future. It is not currently testing self-driving cars and will alert local and state authorities before doing so...


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/05/uber-california-self-driving-vehicles

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Uber had been testing self- driving cars in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto before halting the testing after the 2018 accident. After that, the company said it had modified detection and tracking of pedestrians and cyclists and also improved its emergency braking systems. Uber resumed testing in Pittsburgh in Dec. 2018 and said it planned to launch self-driving vehicles in Washington DC by the end of 2020.

*WARNING: Video released of Uber self-driving crash that killed woman in Arizona. New footage of the crash that killed Elaine Herzberg raises fresh questions about why the self-driving car did not stop. The Guardian, March 2018,

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/22/video-released-of-uber-self-driving-crash-that-killed-woman-in-arizona

[jcmaine72]

1. Call me an out-of-touch relic from the early-mesozoic, but...

There's no way in Hades, Hell, or Helena, Mt that I will ever get into a self-driving anything. At least, not as long as there's no shortage of erratic, hyper-aggressive a-holes on the road who have full autonomy over their vehicles. I don't want to be the only swinging salami on the road stuck inside a self-propelled toy car that, no matter how advanced it is, will never be able to correctly read things like the psychotic glances from a driver next to you, or react properly as he begins to follow you home....all while you're stuck in the back seat of a car you can't control with no driver.

No thanks!

[BootinUp]

3. I'm pre-historic and proud! lol.

[cannabis_flower]

6. And that's why

As an Uber driver, I'm not worried about being replaced by a self-driving car. I do think that food delivery could be entirely replaced by self-driving cars.

[cstanleytech]

2. I suspect we are a long longgggg way from self driving being safe especially given how much some

people would enjoy turning them into remote controlled bombs.
After all can you imagine the damage a truck filled with something explosive could do if it was ran off the road right under a major interstate bridge? Or how about a bunch of them suddenly driving right onto the runway at LAX sometime during christmas or thanksgiving when alot of people are travelling.

[Cicada]

4. When the cost of driving a mile falls from 60 cents to five, what happens?

The IRS calculates the standard mileage rate, the amount you can deduct for business driving, in a highly scientific way,so it cost us sixty cents to drive a mile in 2019. Our cars are parked 95% of the time. Electric cars will be cheap soon and with self driving we can rent out our cars when we don’t need them. We might get the cost of driving a mile to five cents.Won’t highways become absurdly over crowded?

[Polybius]

5. At least you don't have to tip