The great day arrives…
Finally, the day has come when we see self-driving vehicles in a real city, carrying real passengers. This morning, in Pittsburgh, Uber unveiled the first four Ford Fusions to be used for transporting passengers, for the moment chosen from among the most loyal and satisfied of its customers: the company has right now ten vehicles, and is ready to deploy up to a hundred.
The vehicles have a driver ready to take the controls in an emergency, accompanied by a co-pilot with a laptop taking notes. The company spent the morning introducing the service to journalists and allowing them to get behind the wheel of the vehicles: read here to get an idea of the experience (Mashable, NYT, TechCrunch, The Verge, Wired or Quartz, in addition to the official one from Uber).
Obviously, these are not fully self-driving taxis, but for most of the time they are in standalone mode. Some passengers noted the times when the driver took over, but in general everybody who took a ride seems to agree that this project is a major milestone in the future of self-driving vehicles, as well as the importance of a company deciding to launch such a test.
In addition to the publicity from being a groundbreaker — Google’s tests have not been open to the general public — the company aims to benefit from the data and insights gained from passengers themselves, which will be very different from that provided by its engineers.
In an autonomous vehicle, when there is a problem, the algorithm is corrected, and the problem does not reoccur in any other vehicle, something completely impossible to imagine in the case of human conduct. Hence the real importance of these deployments, which makes them much more than just advertising.
The Ford Fusion adapted by Uber is a first attempt, and one that will continue through the collaboration with Volvo to incorporate more vehicles. A LiDAR spins continuously atop the vehicle, with sensors front, back and on the sides to detect objects in close proximity. In addition, 20 cameras collect information about what is going on around the car: braking vehicles, pedestrians crossing, traffic lights, signs, etc. There are also two antennas on the roof and on the back for GPS data and wireless connectivity. The vehicles shown this morning have a tablet in the back seat with a series of frequently asked questions, which the sensors, informs you when the vehicle is driving autonomously and when not, as well as the speed and route being taken. The lower two thirds of the screen show the vehicle and its surroundings as perceived by the LiDAR located on the roof, to give passengers an idea about what the vehicle sees, all in a bid to make the experience as transparent as possible. Also, you can use the tablet to take a selfie and share it, a brilliant marketing element. Everything is designed so that passengers will not only feel at ease and get used to the idea of using a self-driving vehicle driven autonomously, but also to get them to share their experiences.
Volvo, the other brand Uber is working with (the relationship with Ford, according to Ford themselves, is not a collaboration, but Uber’s own choice to use their vehicles), was not decided by chance. Besides having a reputation for safety obtained over a long time, it is adopting a similar communication strategy: a few days ago it launched the Drive Me project in Gothenburg, lending its SUV XC90 to families gather data: users see things differently than engineers do.
Again, the idea is to familiarize the general public with the idea of self-driving vehicles, clearly part of a wider automobile industry response to the challenge from technology companies. Volvo intends to market its autonomous vehicles to the public in 2021, the same year as Ford. For its part, GM last month unveiled the Chevrolet Bolt EV with greater autonomy to the Tesla Model 3 at a similar price, obviously building on its decades of experience in the industry, playing up the delays that have hampered Elon Musk’s projects, but who looks like achieving his dream of a truly competitive market that should make electric-powered cars a reality in the short term.
The future is still not clear and there are many questions: who will carry out the multi-billion dollar investments required to put together the fleets of vehicles required to meet the transport needs of entire cities? How will they be maintained, and how will competition be guaranteed? Who will take responsibility when there are accidents, and of course what will people employed as drivers until now do?
These are not problems that will be resolved overnight, but neither can we sit on our hands waiting for them to answer themselves. alone.
But as of today, in a city in the United States, you can now call Uber and be taken to your destination for most of the time in a self-driving vehicle that is constantly generating data to feed a constantly self-learning algorithm to improve driveability.
All those who, for whatever reason, refuse to accept that technology is more than just advertising for the future, should take a trip to Pittsburgh. What they’ll see is just the beginning.
(En español, aquí)
