Autonomous Ridesharing Uber was founded in 2009 to make transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere and for everyone, using a smartphone app to connect customers to drivers. Rapid growth allowed Uber to be present in 100 cities internationally as of April 2014. The on-demand ride-hailing service started several years before its closest competitor, Lyft, and was therefore able to gain share substantial market growth within the sector. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay In August 2014, the UberEverywhere initiative was launched to expand Uber's global network and revolutionize transportation systems for make it more reliable, more practical and more accessible. The campaign sparked widespread protests against Uber from European taxi drivers. In May 2014, Google unveiled a new self-driving car prototype at Recode's Code Conference. Hours later, Uber's then-CEO openly expressed his desire to replace drivers with autonomous vehicles and highlighted the potential benefits to Uber's customers once the technology existed. At the time, Uber's active driver base numbered more than 160,000 people worldwide. To more quickly advance its autonomous driving ambitions, Uber acquired tech startup Otto and partnered with automaker Volvo in late 2016. Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer, took the helm of transportation development, Uber's autonomous delivery and trucking business and the company has begun vehicle testing. Uber launched its first self-driving Ford Fusion test car from its Advanced Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in late 2016 They claimed that self-driving technology would lead to reduced traffic congestion and more affordable and accessible transportation, as well as a reduction in deaths in car accidents caused primarily by human error. Despite Pittsburgh's initial enthusiasm about partnering with Uber, the relationship quickly deteriorated, with Uber accused of poaching university staff and not honoring their original agreement. The University of Arizona has become the next place where Uber has installed its autonomous test vehicles. San Francisco quickly followed, but the California Department of Motor Vehicles quickly revoked their license and Uber ended the pilot program due to disagreements over permits. More bad news was to follow for Uber, after losing a court case in the UK, which required it to classify its drivers as employees and which could expose the company to claims from its 40,000 UK drivers who do not They were then not entitled to workers' rights. Afterwards, Uber lost its operating license in London due to "public safety and security implications". 2017 continued to be a difficult period for Uber with its U.S. market share declining from 84 to 77 percent in response to #DeleteUber campaigns, poor company culture, and the removal of CEO Travis Kalanick Uber were also sued for stealing trade secrets, with Google claiming their circuit board was a near-replica of theirs and that before leaving Google, a former employee downloaded a large amount of files. Later that year, one of Uber's test cars was involved in an accident in Arizona and the program was temporarily suspended until another car's driver error was recognized as being in question. Uberfurther accelerated its automated fleet plans in 2017. by committing to the purchase of 24,000 Volvo SUVs. In October, Uber cut in half the number of employees manning its driverless test vehicles, despite concerns raised by employees about safety. By the end of the year, Uber had completed 5 billion trips, expanded to 633 cities, and its autonomous pilot program averaged 80,000 miles/week. In late 2017, tech investor Softbank valued Uber at $48 billion and a future IPO was planned. In early 2018, Uber's new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, expressed his belief that the company would be profitable within the next few years and that Uber's automated cars would be available to the public outside of testing by 2020. A few weeks more Later, Google and Uber reached a legal agreement so that the race for autonomous vehicles could continue. The company has expressed a desire to put integrity at the center of future decisions and put measures in place to ensure its self-driving technology is created using only Uber software. In March 2018, after being involved in the first fatal accident in the United States involving an AI-controlled autonomous vehicle, Uber indefinitely suspended all autonomous driving. It was revealed that before the accident, the pilot program had numerous problems that required far more human intervention than competing vehicles and that staff were under pressure to provide the Uber CEO with a smooth, autonomous ride during of a future visit to its test center. According to company documents, Uber planned to seek regulatory approval by 2018 to launch a self-driving car service in Arizona. Case Q&A GuideWhat reasons would Uber have for developing autonomous vehicles? With significant cost reductions likely for ride-hailing customers once drivers are removed from the pricing model, autonomous vehicles will have a huge impact on the industry. Market share is at stake for the first company to bring a fleet of autonomous commercial vehicles to market. With competitor Lyft, among others, also currently developing autonomous vehicles, the pressure on Uber is strong. There are fears that competition of this nature could lead to the dissolution of their business, with Uber's Travis Kalanick previously describing the development of autonomous vehicles as "fundamentally existential for us". With a high valuation and an impending IPO, if Uber were to lose significant market share, it is unlikely that they will be able to maintain their current revenues and expansion in order to provide the expected return that investors expect. Replacing drivers with driverless vehicles will allow Uber to increase revenue, while simultaneously reducing payments to drivers, leading to increased profitability. Given that Uber has raised billions of dollars since 2009, the financial stakes for them are high. Legally, Uber's goal of replacing its human drivers with self-driving technology may not be problematic, but is such a large-scale layoff ethical? Questions Who is responsible for the consequences unemployment or underemployment due to technology is incredibly complex and extends beyond the boundaries of business and economics to sociological, political and philosophical domains. Although not a legal liability, Uber would be ethically well placed to contribute to complex research on unemployment or underemployment linked to.