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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