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Within weeks self-driving vehicles are slated to enter the Pittsburgh market as deployed by Uber. The ride service is famous for offering rides within minutes. A passenger can go online, ask for a ride and someone in the area will show up with their vehicle. The transaction is paid for automatically via the website and it’s done. Both the driver and Uber are paid. Now Uber is cutting out the driver.

This is part of the company’s move to filter out humans. As of now, the vehicles that will start driving people around in the Pittsburg market are going to be manned. The only reason though is to troubleshoot and make sure that everything goes well. They are there in case any issues arise that are as of yet unforeseen. If all goes well, the drivers there “just in case” will be pushed out of the equation altogether, making Uber cars completely self-driving.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick confirmed that the company is accelerating its plans to get rid of its estimated 1-million human drivers who answer calls for rides. The company is working closely with Volvo on the development of autonomous vehicles. As of now, the company works in 60 different countries and is the largest app-based ride-procuring company in the world.

This will be the first company that is using self-driving cars on public roads. Uber will utilize both Volvo XC90s and Ford Focuses for their future plans. Many companies are working on self-directing vehicles. GM, Mercedes, Volvo, Tesla and Ford all have their hands in the pot. The cars will be able to accelerate, brake, manage speed, change lanes, and park without human intervention. Kalanick did state however that the complete change to no-human driving will not happen overnight. They are pushing aggressively, but cautiously to the change.