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Bloomberg's Chafkin on Uber's Self-Driving Fleet Launch (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: And talking about driving the bus, you won't have to
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  Speaker 1: actually drive the bus very long, at least according to Uber.
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  Speaker 1: For example, in Pittsburgh, they will be introducing a fleet
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  Speaker 1: of self driving automobiles this summer. Max Chafkin is technology
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  Speaker 1: reporter for Bloomberg Business Week. You can be followed on
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  Speaker 1: Twitter at c H A F K I N. Chafkin. Alright, Chafkin,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna get in one of those autonomous Volvos that
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  Speaker 1: the Uber is going to be presenting in Pittsburgh. I
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  Speaker 1: have to tell you I was in one of Uber's
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  Speaker 1: self driving cars in Pittsburgh last month as part of
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  Speaker 1: the reporting on this story. Um, this is huge news
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  Speaker 1: in the world of self driving cars, and I guess
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  Speaker 1: more broadly in the in the tech world, which has
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  Speaker 1: been sort of uh, you know, vaulting towards this space.
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  Speaker 1: Google and Apple of course are both plotting sort of
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  Speaker 1: self driving Uber like services. And what Uber has done,
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  Speaker 1: although they are probably not ahead of of Google technologically,
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  Speaker 1: they went to market fast and um which has kind
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  Speaker 1: of been there their calling card, and and so that's
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  Speaker 1: pretty crazy. The other thing that we're reporting in the
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  Speaker 1: story that's out today for Business Week is that Uber
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  Speaker 1: is buying a company called Auto, which is a driverless
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  Speaker 1: truck company that was founded by a number of key
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  Speaker 1: members of the Google self driving car, the UM team.
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  Speaker 1: So they're paying something like a little under seven hundred million,
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  Speaker 1: we think. UM, so it's really a big coup for
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  Speaker 1: for Uber in this kind of race to be first
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  Speaker 1: in self driving. Your story notes, of course that Pittsburgh
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  Speaker 1: is home to Carnegie Mellon Universities Robotics department, and that
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  Speaker 1: Google worked with CMU to get this off the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us about that part of the story. So this
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  Speaker 1: is kind of an angle that UM. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: don't think everyone realizes, but CMU is like the place
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  Speaker 1: to do robotics UH and machine learning research in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. UM Sebastian Throne, who was the guy who
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  Speaker 1: created the Google self driving car, UM was a professor there.
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  Speaker 1: The guy who who was running the Google program and
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  Speaker 1: just left, Chris Urmson. Came out of CMU. What Uber did,
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  Speaker 1: and this is this was sort of mind blowing in
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  Speaker 1: the world of of academia. Eighteen months ago. Basically went
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  Speaker 1: to Pittsburgh and hired forty researchers at CMU and basically
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  Speaker 1: one fell swoop shook things up in the in the
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  Speaker 1: robotics department, in the robotics field, and UM since then,
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  Speaker 1: you know, CMU has has hired new professors that they
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  Speaker 1: seem to be doing fine. But Uber has UM, you know,
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  Speaker 1: created this pretty impressive team in Pittsburgh that has like
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  Speaker 1: five people. They're also, as we reported in the story,
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  Speaker 1: they're opening uh two new offices, one in Palo Alto,
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  Speaker 1: one in San Francisco. So we're seeing self driving cars
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  Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, UM, you know starting now or soon uh
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  Speaker 1: in next you know, a couple of weeks. Uh, I
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked if we start to see them in
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  Speaker 1: Palo Alto and in San Francisco. Max. The cars, these Volvos,
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  Speaker 1: these x C nine SUVs. UH, they're made by Volvo.
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  Speaker 1: Volvo of course owned by China's Geely Holding a group.
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  Speaker 1: What kind of technology is going into Is this it
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  Speaker 1: proprietary or they're using chips? I mean we heard yesterday
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  Speaker 1: from Mark Fields, the chief executive Afford uh talking about
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  Speaker 1: veladne uh Lighter, the sensor technology company. What goes into
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  Speaker 1: these cars? So it's all a little bit fuzzy right now.
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  Speaker 1: But let me let me tell you what we know
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  Speaker 1: one is that and we reported this today, but Uber
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  Speaker 1: Involvo will spend three million dollars together to develop a
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  Speaker 1: base car. Now that car, what I would imagine is
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  Speaker 1: it will come out sort of as a Volvo self
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  Speaker 1: driving car by one and a Uber Taxi version around
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  Speaker 1: the same time. The cars that are out now are
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  Speaker 1: basically modified Volvos. And and my I don't know for
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  Speaker 1: sure like where the mix of labor is, but I
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't be oct if I found out that most of
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  Speaker 1: that was happening in Pittsburgh. One interesting thing about this
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  Speaker 1: Auto acquisition you bring up light are Auto makes its
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  Speaker 1: own lidar. So right now those cars in Pittsburgh are
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  Speaker 1: using I believe Vela dine sensors. But I think one
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  Speaker 1: of the things that interesting things about this acquisition is
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  Speaker 1: they could probably bring that in house. And I think
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  Speaker 1: that's almost certainly what's what they're thinking about. Safety, you know,
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  Speaker 1: big concern, especially after the Tesla UH driver was killed
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  Speaker 1: hitting a truck. Yeah, and and it's it's important to
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  Speaker 1: say that first of all, with the pilot program, their
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  Speaker 1: safety drivers in the cars, there are also co pilots
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  Speaker 1: who are sitting there taking notes everything that happens in
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  Speaker 1: the car is recorded, um, which is a little uh,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you know different, um. Uh. The other thing
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  Speaker 1: is And this is something that Tesla has argued and
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  Speaker 1: I think uber Um will argue as well. There's a
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  Speaker 1: belief that not too long from now, it's going to
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  Speaker 1: become clear that these things are safe and and so
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  Speaker 1: and so, even though there are a few accidents, regulators
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  Speaker 1: will come on board. Well, Max Chaffkin, Uh, I know
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  Speaker 1: you're so glad you're gonna be tracking a force and
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  Speaker 1: riding those self driving cars before I do. I want
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  Speaker 1: to make sure they're safe before I hop on board.
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  Speaker 1: Without those human monitors. Humans aren't safe either. There you go,
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  Speaker 1: Max Chaffkin. Hey, I'm a great driver technology reporter for
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Kathleen Hayes along with Pim Fox.
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  Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg