A Girls Guide to Cars

Cars. On Your Terms.

  • Home
  • About
    • Become a Contributor!
    • Contributors
    • Our Privacy Policy and How to Advertise on the Best Car Site for Women
  • Work With Us
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Periscope
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Navigation
  • Luxury
  • Style
    • Automotive Design
    • Personal Style
  • Technology
    • Apps
    • Connected Cars
    • Green Tech
    • In Car Entertainment
    • Safety Innovations
    • Spotify Playlists
  • Travel
    • Destinations
    • Road Trip!
    • Travel Tips
  • Car Buying
    • Costco’s Car Buying Program
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Recalls
    • Safety
    • Events
    • Buying a Car
    • Finance
    • Maintenance
    • Parts and Gear
    • Canada
  • News & Opinion
    • What Drives Her
    • Her Stories
    • Editorial
    • Ask Us Anything
    • Twitter Parties

Self Driving Cars in Pittsburgh?

August 24, 2016 by Judy Antell Leave a Comment

Uber self driving

Uber’s self driving car. Photo: Uber

Ubers driven by robots!

You know those awkward blind dates when you have nothing to say to the guy across the table? That’s how it can be in a cab. You just want to sit back and scroll through your Instagram feed, not make chit chat. But no, the cab driver insists on asking how your day is and commenting on your hair.

Or you have that sketchy cabbie who looks nothing like the harmless guy pictured in his Uber profile.

Enter self-driving Uber. A pilot program in Pittsburgh just introduced robot driven (but for now, engineer overseen) Uber in Pittsburgh, so you don’t have to have any human contact when you are sitting in a car.

More self driving cars on the horizon

Ford also just announced that it is developing fully autonomous vehicles for use in commercial operation for ride-hailing or ride-sharing service; these will be operation beginning in 2021. The Ford cars will not have steering wheels or gas and brake pedals.

self driving cars

A self-driving Ford Fusion. Credit: Ford

Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president, Global Product Development, and chief technical officer said Ford is tripling the number of self-driving Fusion Hybrid sedans it is road testing in California, Arizona and Michigan, bringing the number up to 30; it plans to triple it again next year.

Why driverless cars?

Part of the appeal of apps like Uber, Seamless and Taskrabbit is the anonymity of the transactions; no need to pick up the phone to actually call someone when you can just order on an app. So a driverless car is a logical progression.

But what happens when your driverless car makes a wrong turn, or you get sick in the car and need to have the car stop? On a recent Uber ride I took, despite the Google map giving directions, my driver made a wrong turn and then asked me for directions. How will that work in a driverless cab?

And what happens if you have an argument with your partner and want to jump out of the cab? I used to be prone to such dramatic gestures – you can’t slam the phone down anymore and hang up on someone in the middle of a fight (they call and ask if you lost service) and you can’t order a driverless car to pull over so you can storm home alone.

So what do you think? Yay or nay on driverless cabs?

And do you no longer have to tip the cabbie?

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
Judy Antell

Judy Antell

Judy Antell, who is TravelingMom.com's Free in 50 States editor, lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her husband and three daughters. Between road trips to visit colleges, travel sports and seeing East Coast sights, she spends a lot of time on the road for a city girl.
Judy Antell

Latest posts by Judy Antell (see all)

  • You Need This: A Refrigerator in Your Car - December 21, 2020
  • Upgrading Grandma’s Car: How To Make Over a Car For a Millennial - November 3, 2016
  • What Drives Her: Sarah Robinson Burns Rubber as a Michelin Test Driver - October 27, 2016

Filed Under: Apps, Connected Cars, News, Technology Tagged With: autonomous cars, autonomous driving, Pittsburgh, self driving cars, Uber

Judy Antell

About Judy Antell

Judy Antell, who is TravelingMom.com's Free in 50 States editor, lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her husband and three daughters. Between road trips to visit colleges, travel sports and seeing East Coast sights, she spends a lot of time on the road for a city girl.

« Automatic Car Wash or Hand Washing: Which is Better?
Rethinking Flying: Road Testing the 2016 Toyota Avalon Hybrid »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Videos

Reviews Header
Britax Endeavours Car Seat Review

Britax Endeavours Car Seat Review: Safety First for Our Girl

Eli Sleepypod Featured image

Sleepypod Pet Travel Harness and Carrier Review: Travel Safely, Fur Babies!

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Child Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress