Uber and CMU to Collaborate on Self-Driving Car Technology

Uber:

Uber and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are announcing today a strategic partnership that includes the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, near the CMU campus. The center will focus on the development of key long-term technologies that advance Uber’s mission of bringing safe, reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere.

Self-driving cars are coming — it feels like an inevitability. And it makes sense that Uber would want to be at the leading edge of that revolution. But it’s a little weird that it puts Uber in a position of tacitly acknowledging that the company is looking forward to replacing all of its human drivers. Their pitch to drivers is, more or less, Come drive for us while you still can.

★ Tuesday, 3 February 2015