Uber or Jetsons Flying Taxi?

By now, you and the entire world know about the Uber driverless announcement and all of you are contemplating a trip to Pittsburgh, not to go on a tour of Carnegie Mellon or Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) with your high schooler, but to take a ride in downtown Pittsburgh in an Uber driverless taxibot - well, with a driver, steering wheel, and brakes. 

It's like the Google car, but not as cute. But Uber has now officially won at least a preliminary foot race in the competition to bring about the driverless revolution by being the first to charge fares for taxi-like, ride hailing, services in the US in exchange for a ride in a vehicle that is not being operated by a human being.

I am considering the trip. But I am considering flying to a country I have no curiosity to visit just to ride on a driverless vehicle. Wait, Uber will only be offering the driverless perk to an undisclosed number of existing customers. C'est la vie. The linked article also has a description of the Uber-Volvo deal. Here's one more article with background on the Uber-Volvo partnership (nothing new). 

Uber joins the game of acquisition musical chairs

Uber is also acquiring a self-driving truck start up that is a Google-spin-off; maybe traitor is a better word. The company was started by two ex-Google-car engineers. Called Otto, the company was initially promising partially autonomous trucks. Otto's full name, by the way, is Ottomotto. 

Uber plans to open a 180,000-square-foot facility in Palo Alto, Calif., to house Otto, which will operate as a stand-alone company focused specifically on upending the long-distance trucking industry. Otto engineers will also work out of offices in San Francisco and Pittsburgh.

Forget surface transportation, take the pilot-less Jetson helicopter 

Airbus is working on a transportation option that it hopes will make the Uber driverless service look like the Model T - pilot-less helicopters. Do not hold your breath. There is no projected date for this service. 

A key goal of the project is alleviating traffic congestion expected to accompany the growing populations of the world's cities. But like the self-driving cars currently undergoing testing, one of the major obstacles to the launch of the self-flying taxi is the lack of a reliable sense-and-avoid technology that allows airborne vehicles to avoid crashing into buildings.  

"That's one of the bigger challenges we aim to resolve as early as possible," Lyasoff says.

 No kidding. I am glad that a company that has not worked out such a significant kink is hesitating before placing a product on the market. 

Articles are referencing the Jetsons' flying contraption, which required a pilot, but not his or her full attention. Enjoy the 1960s' white-washed and sexist introduction to the famous cartoon show.