If Uber wants to keep its self-driving car program in Pittsburgh, it’s going to have to regain the trust of the former steel city.
That’s because despite being the first city to welcome Uber’s autonomous experiment, Pittsburgh’s relationship with the technology company has soured in the nine months since the program’s inception, The New York Times reports. Numerous complaints from officials and residents are at the heart of the issue.
Uber reportedly is charging for driverless rides it said would be free. Furthermore, the company has withdrawn its support from Pittsburgh’s application for a federal transportation grant, and its self-driving car testing track isn’t creating jobs in the struggling neighborhood that houses it.
In all of these cases, Uber reportedly has gone back on promises it made.
“When it came to what Uber and what (Uber CEO) Travis Kalanick wanted, Pittsburgh delivered,” Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto said. “But when it came to our vision of how (the self-driving car) industry could enhance people, planet and place, that message fell on deaf ears.”
The news deals yet another blow to the company’s autonomous vehicle efforts. In March, one of Uber’s self-driving Volvos was involved in an accident in Arizona and, currently, the program is at the center of an ongoing legal battle with Waymo.
Thumbnail photo via Volvo
