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