Uber made another move to having self-driving cars take you from point a to point b. Uber has been working hard and hiring more employees with knowledge of self-driving cars. The company wants to have cars drive everyone instead of having contractors drive their customers. The company would cut out the middleman and make more money in the end.
The partnership will allow Uber employees to work with researchers at the university specializing in lens design “to improve the imagery of what we capture and use to build out mapping and our safety features,” Uber’s Brian McClendon told the Associated Press. The company will also test its mapping vehicles in Tuscon and is donating $25,000 to the university’s College of Optical Sciences as part of the project.
News of the partnership coincided with an executive order from Arizona Governor Doug Ducey “supporting the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles in Arizona,” according to the governor’s office.
“Our administration has been keenly focused on helping 21st-century companies like Uber grow their footprint and succeed in our state, and today’s announcement is the latest signal that it’s working,” Ducey said in a statement.
“All Arizonans stand to benefit from embracing new technologies –- especially when it means new jobs, new economic development, new research opportunities and increased public safety and transportation options for our state.
Mapping is the key to self-driving cars and Uber has been heavily investing in its own mapping technology instead of Google Maps or Apple Maps. Google already has the upper hand with decades of mapping data and a few years of self-driving test and road data. If Uber can beat Google to releasing a self-driving car and make them available through the Uber app the company could make the cars main stream.
Tell us in the comments down below what you think about the self-driving cars being used by Uber!