Uber expands a partnership that will bring self-driving vehicles to two major cities next year, bringing the future of autonomous cars to the ride-sharing app with just a tap.
Starting next year, residents in Atlanta and Austin will be able to hail a ride from a fleet of Waymo’s “full autonomous, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles,” according to a joint statement from both companies. This service will be available for riders requesting an UberX, Uber Green and Uber Comfort ride. It will also include local delivery vehicles for services like Uber Eats.
The news is an expansion of Uber’s existing partnership with the self driving technology company, which started in Phoenix last year. There, local riders are able to hail an autonomous vehicle from the Uber app and directly through the Waymo One app. Waymo’s Phoenix operations are currently the largest fully autonomous service area in the world.
This news adds to a string of announced alliances – including one with the Chevy Bolt-based line of self-driving vehicles called Cruise and another with Wayve. The Wayve partnership will put AI into self-driving features to massively ramp up AI fleet learning, ensuring AV technology is safe and ready for global deployment.
Significant for the industry and for safety
It is well known that the future of driving includes autonomous vehicles, but its deployment into the everyday remains slow because of needed testing, government regulation and consumer weariness.
Uber has the largest mobility and delivery platform with 150m global monthly users. Through partnerships like these with Uber, the industry gains the insight it needs to improve safety and the experience of self-driving gains traction with the many needed stakeholders.
At the same time, consumers test and grow comfortable with the technology. The Waymo/Uber partnership accelerates the vision and potential of AV, though it’s ironic the two companies are partnering, given that Waymo accused the ridesharing company of stealing its trade secrets. The two companies ultimately settled in 2018.
Early data also shows that self-driving cars are also safer on the road, though there are still some concerns. Waymo analyzed 7.13 million fully driverless miles in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and discovered:
Waymo’s driverless cars were 6.7 times less likely than human drivers to be involved a crash resulting in an injury… and 2.3 times less likely to be in a police-reported crash… That translates to an estimated 17 fewer injuries and 20 fewer police-reported crashes compared to if a human driver would have driven the same distance in the cities where Waymo operates. The Verge
Even thought the early data is promising, until we have autonomous vehicle driving the 100+million miles that humans drive, the data isn’t fully comparable.
Yet, there are other safety factors that matter to riders. The inclusion of self-driving cars in to the Uber fleet would also give choices for riders who prefer a solo journey for safety or other reasons. Women, in particular, or minors could benefit from the expansion of this program. In its most recent safety report, motor vehicle fatalities, fatal physical assaults and sexual assaults continue to be an issue for all ride-sharing companies, including Lyft and Uber, despite safety measures taken.
The addition of autonomous car options provides riders, who choose them, another layer of preference that could boost loyalty, adoption and safety in the long run.
