Uber just revealed a new self-driving car that it will use to take on Tesla and Waymo in the robotaxi wars
- Uber revealed its newest self-driving car at its annual Elevate Summit on Wednesday.
- The newest vehicle, a Volvo XC90 SUV, was made in partnership with Volvo and is designed for fully autonomous use without the need for a human safety driver behind the wheel.
- The new self-driving car will reportedly be introduced to Uber's autonomous fleet in 2020 for on-road testing.
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Uber's Advanced Technologies Group unveiled its latest self-driving car, a Volvo SUV that's designed to be fully driverless.
The self-driving Volvo XC90 SUV, announced at the Uber Elevate Summit on Wednesday, will be the first Uber autonomous car designed to drive itself without the need for a human "mission specialist" driver behind the wheel, TechCrunch reports. The vehicle was made as part of Uber's ongoing partnership with Volvo.
The car's self-driving system can enable "the possible future deployment of self-driving cars in Uber's network as an autonomous ridesharing service," Uber said in its news release. The vehicle will be equipped with computer-controlled steering and breaking systems, as well as back-up systems and back-up battery power. The back-up systems will bring the car to a full stop if any of the primary systems were to fail.
Uber says that this new generation of self-driving cars will be introduced to Uber's existing on-road fleet "in higher quantities" in 2020.
However, Uber's self-driving cars are currently only being tested on public roads in Pittsburgh. Uber's testing program was suspended in early 2018 following a deadly accident in Arizona involving one of its self-driving cars.
Volvo and Uber have partnered since September 2016 on self-driving technology. Volvo signed a "framework agreement" in 2017 to sell Uber "tens of thousands" of self-driving cars between 2019 and 2021.