Uber joins race for driverless cars

US car-hailing company Uber has joined the race for driverless car technology, confirming it is testing a vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh. 

The company said in a statement it had outfitted a Ford Fusion with radar, laser scanners and cameras.

Uber's project is being carried out in partnership with Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. 

More and more car and technology firms are partnering up to develop self-driving vehicles.

Aside from pioneer Google, companies like Tesla are also developing the technology, while Chinese car and tech firms have also made significant progress. 

 

Uber said in its statement that real-world testing was "critical to our efforts to develop self-driving technology", and explained a trained driver was still monitoring operations in the car at all times.

The company has also recently joined a coalition with Google and several car makers to help steer the regulations needed to make self-drive cars a reality.

Together with Ford, Volvo and Lyft, they aim to lobby lawmakers and regulators on some of the legal barriers that would need to be changed before driverless cars could hit the roads.