Uber recently poached 40 of the scientific minds working at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center. Uber and Carnegie Mellon already had a partnership to work on robotics formed in 2015 that would include the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh.

How close is Silicon Valley to producing a self-driving car? Google has said that self-driving cars could be available to consumers as early as 2020. That would be ahead of the date futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts computers will become like humans, 2029.

Apple and Google are both pursuing opportunities to remake the car. Apple poached a team from electric car battery maker A123 Systems, a move that led to a lawsuit and stoked a lot of speculation about the tech giant planning to produce its own car in the next decade. […]

more on our site:
Autoevolution | Google’s Ray Kurzweil says autonomous cars will free us, are linked to immortality and VR

related viewing:

The Daily Conversation | The future of driverless cars. Autonomous vehicles have made significant progress in the last decade and should be available to buy very soon. In this The Daily Conversation mini-documentary, we look at the history of  self-driving vehicles, where the industry is today, and what our roads will look like in the future.

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The Daily Conversation | YouTube channel