Report: Uber's Self-Driving Vehicles Returning To Pittsburgh Streets
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Uber appears ready to get their self-driving cars back on Pittsburgh roads.
Starting in just a few weeks, the New York Times is reporting that the autonomous vehicles will ride in a one-mile loop between Uber's two offices here in Pittsburgh.
The original goal was Nov. 28, but that date keeps getting pushed back.
Uber put the cars through a test of 70 categories at 25 miles an hour. The cars failed at 10 of them, including driving too slow to recognize another car that didn't yield.
Eight months ago, one of Uber's self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
For that reason, they want to ease the cars back on the roads, but there will be many new limitations.
The self-driving cars used to drive at speeds as high as 55 miles per hour, but now they won't exceed 25 miles an hour and they won't drive at night or in wet weather.
Uber's self-driving cars were supposed to help save the company money by eliminating the company's need for drivers.
Turns out, the technology just isn't there yet and more testing is needed.
In July, Uber did return the cars back to the roads here in Pittsburgh in manual mode. They plan to now have some cars in self-driving mode, but with two mission specialists in each car.