The 300 local employees of Uber's Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) can use a modified Uber ride-hailing app to request one of its self-driving Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicles to take them to and from their new offices at Pier 70 on the city's eastern waterfront. The free rides, which started today, will operate only in San Francisco.
The purpose is twofold: to give engineers a visceral sense of the technology they're developing, and to gain real-life feedback on operating a robot-taxi service — which is Uber's eventual goal.
"It's a really nice connection for engineers to have to what they're working on," said Brian Torcellini, Uber senior manager of testing operations. "You can look at metrics on paper, get emails and feedback about a vehicle's performance, but to actually, physically experience the nuances of the self-driving software is powerful. Having that connection keeps them focused on the overall context rather than one engineering challenge at a time."
As is true for all self-driving vehicles on California public roads, the cars will have backup drivers. The Department of Motor Vehicles recently created a system for companies to test self-driving cars without backup drivers but has not yet issued permits for it.
For her job as an Uber test operator, Michelle Ortega already rides in the self-driving cars all day long, either as a backup driver or in the navigator's seat. But she's looking forward to getting a different perspective on them.
"You work on something every day, so it's exciting to experience the progress and change yourself," she said. "This will give me a better understanding of what it will be like as a (ride-hailing) service."
The metallic-gray SUVs feature spinning rooftop lidar sensors (a laser form of radar) and white map decals on the rear passenger doors.
ATG, whose mission is to develop self-driving cars, has about 1,600 employees total, dispersed among San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Arizona and Toronto.
(c)2018 the San Francisco Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
