The Next Uber You Get Might Not Come With A Driver
Ryan Barrell— The Huffington Post UK
Taxi hailing app Uber may be looking to cut out its drivers, judging by a new agreement with Carnegie Mellon University to fund a high tech lab focusing on automation and safety technology.
The Uber Advanced Technologies Center will be located in Pittsburgh, USA, where the taxi app's people will work with staff and students at Carnegie Mellon to research and develop new robotic technology.
"We are excited to join the community of Pittsburgh and partner with the experts at CMU, whose breadth and depth of technical expertise, particularly in robotics, are unmatched," Uber's Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden said in a statement.
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Tech giant Google plans to put self-driving cars on the road by 2020
The costly endeavour will be funded by Uber's recent investment of more than $4.9 billion.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has already praised the idea of self-driven vehicles at last May's Code Conference.
"The reason Uber could be expensive is you're paying for the other dude in the car," he said.
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
"When there is no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere is cheaper.
"If I were talking to one of the drivers we partner with, I'd say look: this is the way the world is going to go and if Uber didn't go that way it won't exist."
This all points to Uber looking at driverless cabs, which seems like a response to Google's plans to launch its own taxi-hailing app announced on Monday.
Uber kitten Dime from the San Francisco SPCA strikes a pose for HuffPost. (credit:Huffington Post)
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Our neighbors in the building joined in on the fun! (credit:Huffington Post)
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The kittens relished the attention. (credit:The Huffington Post)
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Sisters Dime and Nickel and brother Quarter are all up for adoption at the San Francisco SPCA, though we think they make an excellent trio. (credit:Huffington Post)
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HuffPost's neighbors in our San Francisco building joined in -- and also ensured the kittens did not leap off any shoulders. (credit:Huffington Post)
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Uber brought a long some accessories from their partner in the project, I Can Has Cheezburger. (credit:The Huffington Post)
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Good News and Social Impact Platforms assistant editor Mohini Kundu with Quarter. (credit:Huffington Post)
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HuffPost Good News and Social Impact Platforms editor Riddhi Shah snuggles up with Nickel. (credit:Huffington Post)
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Huffpost San Francisco editorial fellow Lydia O'Connor and Uber kitten Nickel. (credit:Huffington Post)
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Some of the HuffPost team in San Francisco and Uber kittens Quarter, Dime and Nickel (credit:Huffington Post)
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Dime and another building neighbor. (credit:Huffington Post)
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Dime can has cheezburger hat? (credit:Huffington Post)
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Not enough kittens to go around! (credit:Huffington Post)
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I Can Has Cheezburger cupcakes from Ace of Cakes. (credit:Huffington Post)