UBER: First Step Towards Bringing Self-Driving Technology to Life in Washington

Uber Technologies Inc., said Thursday the company will start collecting data for self-driving vehicles with human drivers behind the wheel on Washington Roads Friday, the first step towards possible future implementation. As in Austin, San Francisco and Toronto, Uber will gather road data to support Uber's self-driving growth.Eric Meyhofer, Uber ATG CEO, said this was the "first step towards bringing self-driving technology to life in our nation's capital."

It runs autonomous cars in Pittsburgh with safety drivers behind the wheel in autonomous mode. Uber is taking a more careful approach to technology as one of its self-driving vehicles killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona in March 2018, the first incident that involved an autonomous vehicle. Uber has halted all testing of self-driving vehicles following the crash. It resumed trials with updated applications and significant new restrictions and precautions in Pittsburgh in December 2018.

 Separately, in six cities like Seattle, Ford Motor Co is developing self-driving vehicles without passengers with tech startup Argo AI, a venture that it has invested in. Since from mid-2019, Ford is testing cars with two safety drivers in Washington's self-driving mode and it has a dozen of self-driving vehicles in the nation's capital.