But it also has invited criticism from those who say Pittsburgh is giving too much power to tech companies, all for a sheen of innovation. Some residents are on edge about Uber’s self-driving vehicles and complain that they have been thrust into an experiment with potential safety risks.

“I feel like we were pushed into being part of this by the city,” said Montana Michniak, a recent college graduate who works at a cafe in the city’s South Side neighborhood.

How Pittsburgh handles the unveiling of Uber’s self-driving fleet is being closely watched by other tech and auto companies that are doing their own driverless experiments in places like California and Michigan (although Apple is said to have laid off dozens of employees in its self-driving car project and to be rethinking its strategy). Depressed cities around the nation are watching to see if the Pittsburgh story can be a blueprint for their own transitions into tech hubs.

“This is the first mayor in Pittsburgh to really get it, and that’s a big reason why the city has become the best case of Rust Belt revival,” said Richard Florida, a professor of urban studies at the University of Toronto, who previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He said he was “frankly surprised at how long a leash” Uber got.

Mr. Peduto said Uber did not have too much power in Pittsburgh and said the city would be safe because there would be a human monitor in the Uber test cars. The mayor also has his eye on a bigger safety goal.

“There is no technology that is fail-proof and there is no tech that can guarantee there won’t be accidents, but right now there are 3,287 people who die in automobile-related accidents around the world each day, and there has to be a better way,” he said.