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Rise of the machines: Self-driving Ubers arrive in Pittsburgh

Praise be our new robot overlords!

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
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Andrew Krok

Self-driving Ubers have reached Pennsylvania and it's not even winter yet.

When Uber said it was working to deliver self-driving cars to the roads of Pittsburgh by year's end, not everybody was convinced. But here we are, in the middle of September, and the ridesharing titan's autonomous vehicles have just arrived.

Now, when riders order an UberX, there's a chance that one of its autonomous Ford Fusions will arrive instead. There will still be a driver behind the wheel, just in case, and the cup holder's been replaced with a big red button that shuts the self-driving down and allows the driver to take control. Uber cites inclement weather as one reason it may have to rely on the driver.

Uber says its self-driving cars will be on the road 24 hours a day, which kind of stinks for the engineer stuck with the 3 a.m. shift. It's just a pilot program, though, so it could end at any time, although Uber doesn't appear to have a firm end date in mind.

But this will be far from Uber's last foray into autonomy. It's acquired Otto, a company that's looking to build self-driving tech for semi trucks, and it's still working with Volvo to bring autonomous XC90s to the US, as well. Get ready for the robots, folks. There's no stopping this wave from hitting the shore.

Watch this: Self-driving Uber cars hit the streets of Pittsburgh