You Can Hail a Self-Driving Uber in San Francisco

For the last few months, Uber’s self-driving cars have been prowling the streets of San Francisco, forecasting the inevitable moment when the ride-hailing giant starts inviting passengers to take autonomous trips in the city where it first launched over seven years ago. That moment has finally arrived.

Starting on December, anyone in San Francisco who hails an UberX could find themselves in the backseat of a luxury, self-driving Volvo XC90, complete with leather interior, spinning LIDAR sensor, and a trunk full of computing power.

While riding in the car is an uneventful experience, keeping pace with Uber's brazen moves to push autonomy onto the public street is not boring. California has some of the strictest autonomous driving rules in the country, and the state’s DMV does not have Uber listed among the companies that have obtained permits to test their vehicles on public roads.

Compared to the Ford Fusions Uber is using in Pittsburgh, the XC90’s self-driving technology is more streamlined and integrated into the vehicle. There were only seven cameras, down from 22 on the Fusions. Radar sensors are installed behind the front bumper, rather than protruding off the side of the vehicle like an unsightly boil. But the tech isn’t totally unobtrusive: the car still had the spinning LIDAR sensor perched on top to provide a 360-degree laser scan of the environment.

Read more at The Verge

Image Credit: The Verge

-jk-