Uber Could Be First to Test Completely Driverless Cars in Public

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has made no secret about wanting robots to replace human drivers in his rideshare service—and now he’s found somewhere to develop them. Last month, the governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, paved the way for the world’s first driverless taxis on public roads.

At a joint press conference with Uber, Ducey unveiled an executive order calling for pilot programmes of self-driving vehicles “regardless of whether the operator is physically present in the vehicle or is providing direction remotely.”

Several U.S. states already permit autonomous vehicle tests but all require a human in the driver’s seat should the technology unexpectedly fail. While safety drivers might suit auto makers like Tesla that are building “autopilots” to help motorists avoid accidents on boring motorway journeys, Uber ultimately wants to eliminate human drivers altogether.

At a technology conference in California last year, Kalanick said, “The reason Uber could be expensive is because you’re not just paying for the car—you’re paying for the other dude in the car. When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle.”

The idea would be that the car would cope with the vast majority of situations it finds itself in, but a human monitoring its cameras and other systems online could be ready to take over if something goes wrong.

Up until now, the U.S. government has frowned on removing human drivers from the equation. In a 2013 policy paper, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated: 

[We] strongly recommend that states require that a properly licensed driver be seated in the driver’s seat and ready to take control of the vehicle while the vehicle is operating in self-driving mode on public roads.

All the other U.S. states that have passed laws for the testing of self-driving vehicles have followed this recommendation, requiring a driver in the car able to quickly and easily take manual control. California even requires safety drivers to be specially trained to deal with problems that self-driving cars might suffer from, such as unexpectedly steering, accelerating, or braking.

Uber is not the only company that would prefer to let self-driving vehicles fend for themselves, however. Volkswagen-Audi and Zoox, a Silicon Valley robo-taxi start-up, both unsuccessfully lobbied Californian officials to remove the requirement for a safety driver in their test vehicles. “Zoox is designing vehicles to perform all safety critical driving functions,” wrote Michael Harrison-Ford, the company’s chief of staff. “The regulations are couched in terms of traditional automobiles and risk excluding the benefits of [full] autonomy.”

Arizona promises to be a much friendlier state for such high-tech companies. “Arizona has been a great home for Uber,” the company wrote in a recent blog post. Governor Ducey championed ridesharing regulations that allowed Uber to operate legally in Arizona, and Uber opened a customer service center in the state in June. During August’s press conference, the company announced a US $25,000 donation to the University of Arizona, and committed to fund research into mapping and self-driving technologies there.

“Some universities have shied away more than they should from working with the private sector and we’re quite the opposite,” says Tom Koch, dean of the University’s College of Optical Sciences. “For us, working with companies like Uber has always been a tremendous win.”

Ducey’s executive order looks to have been written with Uber in mind. It requires that Arizona’s driverless vehicle pilot programmes take place on the campuses of public universities, such as the University of Arizona. It also directs the state’s Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety and “all other agencies” to “undertake any necessary steps to support the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles on public roads within Arizona.”

This means that when Uber does reveal its self-driving taxi, it should be able to legally drive paying customers around the University from day one, which may not be too far off. Uber told Spectrum that the company’s mapping vehicles are already operating on the university’s public roads. Although the cars do not currently have self-driving capabilities, they do have laser-ranging lidar units and multiple video cameras similar to those used by many autonomous vehicles today.

“Uber will be engaging our faculty with specific interests that they have,” says Koch. “We’re anticipating that Uber will work with us on problems that are near term, helping them with engineering solutions in the design of advanced imaging systems.”

The close relations between Uber and Arizona come as no surprise to Bryant Walker Smith, a professor at the University of South Carolina and expert in self-driving law. “You have companies that are looking for customised legal regimes,” he says. “There is probably a project underway to do some kind of testing and this is the way that the company has suggested moving forward in a limited fashion to facilitate only what it wants to do.”

Smith thinks that Governor’s Ducey’s choice of university campuses should limit the risk to the public if the technology fails. “It points to a low-speed shuttle system moving around in a constrained geographic area,” he says. “If you’re going slow enough, the car has more time to process and decide how to respond to events. And if it gets it wrong, the damage is likely to be much less.”

Uber told Spectrum that it has not made any plans or announcements for self-driving vehicles beyond what was revealed in Arizona last month. However, documents obtained by IEEE Spectrum show that the company has approached a testing facility for autonomous vehicles in California.GoMentum Station is a disused military base in the Bay Area that Apple was also considering for testing its self-driving car.

The NHTSA was not able to comment on Arizona’s roadmap for legalising driverless taxis for public use. But in its policy paper, the agency says, “NHTSA does not recommend that states authorize the operation of self-driving vehicles for purposes other than testing at this time. Self-driving vehicle technology is not yet at the stage of sophistication or demonstrated safety capability that it should be authorized for use by members of the public for general driving purposes.”

While the NHTSA cannot ban Uber outright, it does have options to investigate and if necessary recall self-driving vehicles, according to Smith. “This isn’t a free for all,” he says. “The NHTSA can make life difficult for Uber if things get out of hand.”

Uber to launch carpooling service for commuters in China

Uber has grand expansion plans in China, and it's chosen the country as its testing ground for a new carpooling service.

The San Francisco-based ride-hailing service on Tuesday announced the launch of UberCommute, a service that will connect drivers who commute long distances with passengers heading in the same direction to share the cost of the journey. The service will make its debut in Chengdu, China, but Uber ultimately plans to expand it to markets around the world.

"When people can push a button and get a ride in minutes, they are less likely to drive themselves," Uber said in a blog post. "Instead of 30 people using their own cars, you have one car serving them all."

UberCommute, the ride-hailing service's first major product launch outside the US, underscores China's growing influence in the technology world. The country's massive population of 1.35 billion and growing middle class have created a lucrative market for companies to capitalize on.

Highlighting that opportunity, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced earlier this month that the company plans to spread its service to 100 additional cities in China within the next 12 months -- twice the number of cities Uber previously said it would enter. In June, Kalanick reportedly sent a letter to investors that said the company planned to invest more than $1 billion for its China expansion during 2015. He called the company's growth there "remarkable and unprecedented."

Despite Uber's heavy emphasis on expansion in China, it hasn't necessarily been a smooth ride. The company, which pairs passengers with drivers via a smartphone app, has faced resistance from regulators and competitors. Transportation authorities have reportedly conducted raids at two of the company's offices in China ass part of a broad crackdown on illegal taxi services.


The new service could help it better compete with local taxi-hailing company Didi Kuaidi, which is estimated to control the vast majority of the local ride-hailing market share. Uber is currently in 20 Chinese cities, according to Reuters, while Didi Kuaidi is in more than 300. That competition is likely to intensify after Didi announced a partnership last week with Uber rival Lyft that will link the two companies' apps, enabling passengers to use their usual app while traveling abroad just like they would at home.

UberCommute works much like the company's popular ride-hailing app. After signing into the app, drivers indicate where they are heading. The app then pairs drivers with passengers who have requested rides in the same direction, as well as showing them how much payment they will receive. The driver then has the option to accept or reject the ride request.

Uber, highest-valued venture-backed company in the world with a valuation of more than $50 billion, enters a carpool market that has gained tech attention of late. Google confirmed in July that its Waze navigation app is running a "limited trial" of a new carpooling service in Israel called RideWith that connects drivers on their way to work with potential riders. BlaBlaCar, a French startup that finds vacant seats in cars for passengers traveling long distances, has raised $200 million, giving it a valuation of $1.6 billion.

Business travelers are shifting away from taxis and limos, favoring Uber rides instead

Business travelers are bypassing the taxi queue with greater frequency, choosing instead ride-hailing services like Uber Technologies.

A new report by expense management system provider Certify shows that 47 percent of the ground transportation rides by its users in March were through Uber. That's more than tripled from the 14 percent of rides that Uber had just over a year ago in January 2014. In a few cities, Uber now tops taxi rides for business travelers.

"While we often see noteworthy market shifts — leading restaurant chains and hotels exchanging leadership positions, for example — it is unprecedented to see one vendor grow to take such a commanding market share within one year's time," says Certify CEO Bob Neveu.

While taxis, limousines and airport shuttles still dominate the ground transportation business, Certify's report shows ride-hailing services are rapidly on the rise among business travelers. Certify based its finding on the 28 million trip receipts its North American clients submit each year.

Uber connects travelers with various cars through its smartphone app. Some drivers work for car service companies; others spend a few hours driving their personal cars on the side for some extra money.

Business travelers might be quickly moving toward Uber, but their employers have some major concerns.

Mike McCormick, executive director of the Global Business Travel Association, notes that many companies are worried about issues of safety and liability. Depending on the city, Uber drivers aren't necessarily regulated by government taxi licensing authorities. Both Uber and competitor Lyft insure their drivers during paid rides and also require the drivers to carry personal auto insurance that covers them the rest of the time.

Uber has faced criticism that its employees inappropriately accessed customer data and that it does not properly screen drivers to ensure they have clean criminal records.

In a few cities, Uber beats out taxis by a wide margin for business travelers. In its home town of San Francisco, 71 percent of rides expensed through Certify during the first quarter were for Uber; 29 percent used taxis. Uber also beat out all other forms of ground transportation in Dallas, accounting for 56 percent of the rides.

In Los Angeles and Washington D.C., Uber represented 49 percent of business travel rides. Taxis, limousines and airport shuttles still reigned in New York, Miami and Chicago where they took 79 percent, 77 percent and 75 percent of rides expensed, respectively.