Uber Autonomous Cars Need Frequent Driver Help

Documents obtained by Recode show Uber’s fleet of autonomous cars in various North American locations (mostly in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and Phoenix, Arizona) are proving to be…well not completely autonomous.

The cars do have a driver behind the wheel and, for example, during the week which ended on 8 March, those drivers of the 43 cars in use assumed control on average once every 1.3kms.

Recode reports those driver interventions include ‘critical’ (where the driver has assumed control to avoid pedestrians or a situation which may cause damage), ‘bad experiences’ (jerky driving or hard braking which may be uncomfortable for passengers) as well as the predicted situations involving bad weather or where road markings are unclear.

Drivers also intervene more often when the cars travel to new locations and need to navigate around previously ‘unlearned’ objects or road markings.

Technology