You take out your phone, and open the Uber app. Ten minutes later you get into a car that matches the description and registration number of the car on your phone. You exchange pleasantries with the driver. You are completely at ease, because soon you will arrive safely at your destination. Or will you?

There have been a number of attacks on Uber passengers in the news lately, and not only in crime-ridden South Africa. Apart from passengers falling prey to muggings and assault, Uber drivers are also at the receiving end of physical and verbal abuse by crazy passengers. The answer to this? Take the driver out of the equation. And this is exactly what Uber plans to do. If you live in Pittsburgh, you can ride for free in Uber’s fleet. The fleet consists of fourteen self-driving Ford Fusions with two Uber technicians in the front seats. One of the reasons Uber chose Pennsylvania, is because there is no actual state rule preventing driverless cars. As long as there’s someone inside the car to take the wheel if necessary than it’s all good.

On every Uber test vehicle, multiple stationary and spinning cameras collect 1.4 million distance measurements per second. These guide the car along its journey through the town. Soon a large fleet of modified Volvo XC90’s will also join the autonomous party.

It will still be a while until Uber’s cars are truly driverless – in South Africa, it may never happen. Raj Rajkumar, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, say that the US and Europe are at least 10 years away. Away from technology being reliable enough to replace humans. Furthermore, Steve Shladover, an engineering professor at the University of California, puts it at 60 years.

uber driverless testcar

For now, the ride in one of these Uber autonomous vehicles is said to be slow, and sometimes frustrating. Here’s one journalist’s account of a trip in a self-driving Uber taxi:

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/09/14/493823483/self-driving-cars-take-to-the-streets-of-pittsburgh-courtesy-of-uber

Didi Chuxing

Meanwhile, back in China, Apple has invested a billion US Dollars in Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing. Consequently also taking a seat on the board of the firm soon afterwards. Didi (worth $35 billion) famously beat Uber out of the country, forcing them to sell their local business.

And here’s where it gets interesting. Didi is working on the development of its own autonomous cars. Which is right up Apple’s alley, given its own interest in the topic. You can read more about it here:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/6/13185652/didi-chuxing-self-driving-car-china-uber

The frantic race to a fully autonomous ride-hailing future is well under way.