Uber is reportedly laying off its driverless-cars operators in Pittsburgh, the city at the center of its self-driving project. About 100 people will be laid off and replaced by 55 “mission specialists” trained to offer more technical feedback to vehicle developers.
Fatal flaws: It isn’t surprising that Uber is rethinking its plans. One of its cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, earlier this year. Most damning, according to an official report, is that the car saw the pedestrian but did not to react.
Obstacles ahead: Uber launched its self-driving-vehicle project in 2016, and I got to sit behind the wheel of one its first cars as it careened around the streets of Pittsburgh. However, experts I spoke to warned that some challenges, like dealing with bad weather, would be hard to solve.
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