With our ever-advancing technology and advancing nation, the future of self-driving ubers has finally come! Introduced in late 2016, the Advanced Technology Group (ATG), Uber’s self-driving unit, has attracted the attention of many. Some looked upon this prospect with criticizing eyes, while others viewed this as a hint of the quickly approaching futuristic world. Regardless of its popularity amongst the public eye, self-driving ubers will forever influence the future of transportation.

Self-driving cars have the possibility to forever change the world for the better; “1.3 million people die every year in car accidents — 94% of those accidents involve human error.” Cars relying on navigation technology have the ability to save countless human lives, as well as provide for a less expensive and more efficient means of transportation. Uber is working to renovate transportation to make it “as reliable as running water.”

The first city to experience this life-changing innovation is the “Steel City”, otherwise known as Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is the ideal home for Uber’s “Advanced Technologies Center because of its world-class engineering talent and research facilities.” It has the perfect environment to develop its “technology across a wide variety of road types, traffic patterns and weather conditions.” In fact, Uber’s first-ever test self-driving cars can be seen driving around Pittsburgh in the coming weeks.

How are the ubers going to operate? The ubers are hybrid Ford Fusions, and are designed with “a variety of sensors including radars, laser scanners, and high-resolution cameras to map details of the environment.” While the car is in motion, it is “collecting mapping data as well as testing its self-driving capabilities.” However, fear not, “a trained driver will be in the driver’s seat monitoring operations” in case the situation goes awry.

However, many are quick to oppose this futuristic invention, stating that the countless problems outweigh its benefits. On the early days of Uber’s self-driving commercial testing, one of the cars ran a red light due to human error. This brings up the possible dangers that could arise in the future, as well as one of the significant flaws that got overlooked in its daunting production process. Additionally, the improvement level concerning the “trial-and-error” portion of the real-world testing has shown little to no progress, causing the safety drivers to constantly take over the wheel and regain control of the system. These problematic incidents are enough to shed a negative light over Uber’s entire innovation, and cause the public eye to gain suspicion over the company’s reliability.

Nevertheless, the ingenious prospect of self-driving appears promising, and can provide many benefits to our industrializing nation.