Uber and Self-Driving Cars

After reading the post “Cars You Drive Will Eventually Be Outlawed”, I noticed an article about Uber and self-driving cars. In class, we talked about Uber as a disruptive innovation when it comes to current taxi services. When I did my research on autonomous vehicles, this idea that current cars could be taken off the market completely was very real possibility; current cars and self-driving cars will not be compatible on the road together.

In this article, Uber’s technology leaders have started to working with Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center to  research  “areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology”. Uber is making a smart decision by investing in this technology because self-driving cars will become the new taxis.

Since Uber is investing in this technology, it will be faced with new challenges. While we as consumers use Uber because it is convenient the company has recruited drivers by saying drivers can get rich. But, within the past year Uber has faced several lawsuits from its independent contractors or “drivers”. In my opinion, Uber will probably heavily invest in self-driving cars to eliminate this problem. The article also mentioned that Google may create a taxi service similar to Uber since it is also heavily investing in self-driving cars.

When Uber only has self-driving cars pick you up, would you continue to use Uber? Why or Why not? Would you start using Google’s taxi service instead? How do you think Uber will change its business model to compete with a huge company like Google?