Uber puts the ire in Iron City

Pittsburgh's history with self-driving carsSelf-driving vehicles were operating in Pittsburgh decades before Uber. Carnegie Mellon University's NavLab project, which began in 1984, has developed 11 generations of autonomous vehicle prototypes and has been testing them on public roads."In the early days, people would stare and look at our vehicles," said Aaron Steinfeld, an associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon.Names that have become closely associated with the self-driving technology industry, including ex-Googlers Chris Urmson and Sebastian Thrun, also worked out of Carnegie Mellon, contributing to projects such as NavLab and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency challenge teams.Here is how the self-driving car grew up in Pittsburgh.1984:The NavLab project is born out of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute.2000:General Motors forms a collaborative lab with Carnegie Mellon to research vehicle information technology.2004:Carnegie Mellon's Sandstorm driverless vehicle travels the farthest in the first DARPA Grand Challenge in the Mojave Desert. No team finished the course.2005:Carnegie Mellon's driverless vehicles are 2 of 5 to complete the 132-mile course in the second DARPA Grand Challenge.2007:Carnegie Mellon's team, which included Urmson and Argo AI founder Bryan Salesky, wins the DARPA Urban Challenge with its self-driving Chevrolet Tahoe.2015:Uber announces strategic partnership with Carnegie Mellon and opens its Advanced Technologies Center with former Carnegie Mellon faculty. Though no collaborative research efforts have come out of the venture, Uber has donated $5.5 million to the university.2016:Uber begins testing its self-driving vehicles on Pittsburgh roads. PITTSBURGH -- Late last year, residents of Pittsburgh's Bloomfield and Oakland neighborhoods found signs posted around their streets that warned of a world in which self-driving cars destroy local communities.

Uber puts the ire in Iron City

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