The future is now! Developers over at the popular rideshare app, Uber, have brought driverless cars to the streets of Toronto. It's a move that has been in the works for a while now, but only came to completion this week after gaining approval from seniors in the provincial government.
Uber is starting off relatively small in the Canadian city, and so far, the rollout will only include two self-driving vehicles operating in manual mode. This means that the cars themselves will be autonomous, but they will still have human operators overseeing the commute. It may seem a little less exciting than ghost whips, but the precautionary measures might be a good thing considering Uber's history with the tech.
Back in March of this year, a self-driving Uber was involved in a traffic collision in Tempe, Arizona. Since then, the company has made serious efforts to prevent any similar accidents from happening. Following a brief suspension of the initiative, Uber went back to the drawing board and has slowly begun to integrate the driverless cabs back onto our roads.
Perhaps most disappointing, however, is the fact that Toronto's autonomous Ubers will not be able to pick up riders. The two aforementioned cars are currently conducting a mapping campaign to better allow future self-driving trips. According to company representatives, we should be expecting fully operational cars sometime near the end of 2017. In the meantime, you'll be able to get a glimpse at the future by lurking around the University of Toronto campus, where the driverless mapping vehicles will be doing their thing.
