Uber to launch self-driving cars to pick up passengers in Pittsburgh in the coming weeks

Uber is launching a fleet of self-driving cars to pick up passengers in Pittsburgh — and the vehicles will be hitting the roads in as soon as a few weeks. The autonomous Ford Fusions are "supervised by humans in the driver's seat for the time being," Bloomberg reports, although Uber plans to eventually phase out human backup drivers.

"The goal is to wean us off of having drivers in the car, so we don't want the public talking to our safety drivers," Uber engineering director Raffi Krikorian told Bloomberg. Pittsburgh customers will be randomly paired with driverless cars through the Uber app, and the ride will cost the same as the local rate of $1.30 a mile.

While autonomous vehicle advocates argue that self-driving cars are safer, critics have pointed to concerning cases such as a Tesla Autopilot driver who was killed in a crash with a tractor-trailer, apparently because the car and driver didn't spot it. Uber cars have not yet been in even a minor crash, but road tests only began in May.

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Volvo and Uber additionally announced a $300 million deal on Thursday as Uber plans to add specially modified autonomous Volvo XC90 SUVs to their self-driving fleet.