Consumers would save money both on rides and on auto insurance and maintenance. In that utopian scenario, vehicles could go from one customer to another, eliminating the need to park on crowded city streets while reducing energy consumption and pollution. "Uber isn’t trying to compete just to design the safest possible autonomous vehicle, but also to create a compelling transportation experience."įor years, experts have said the best way to incorporate autonomous vehicles into society would be for driverless cars to also be connected, electric and shared ( Greenwire, Feb. "What is interesting and exciting is that we are seeing the product development and business model innovation at the same time," Ezell said. Customers who opt into the Uber test program, which will be monitored by two engineers per vehicle, will ride for free.
What makes Uber different is that it’s allowing the public - not just Google engineers or those who can afford Tesla - to see the technology firsthand. "They are in an extremely long war with Google and Apple and Tesla that will continue far beyond this." "They haven’t won the war," Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer said. Meanwhile, Tesla Motors Inc.’s rollout of its "Autopilot" mode earlier this year made headlines after it was involved in a fatal car accident in Florida.
Google has been testing its autonomous vehicle on public roads in Silicon Valley for years. Technologically speaking, Uber isn’t doing anything different from other companies looking to get into the driverless car space.