"SAFETY KEY FOR POPULARITY OF AUTONOMOUS CARS"

Sachin Kansal, Chief Product Officer, Uber, shares insights on the company’s autonomous vehicle strategy, Al-driven innovation, and the balance between human drivers and self-driving technology

- BY CHETAN BHUTANI

AS UBER ACCELERATES into the future of mobility, Sachin Kansal, Chief Product Officer, in an interview with Business Today discusses partnerships, India's potential in automated vehicles, and the road ahead for profitability and seamless global integration. Edited excerpts:

What was your team's initial reaction when the first autonomous car rolled out?

I was here in January when we started testing, and collectively, the team was very excited. We have partnered with Waymo for a couple of years now, initially launching in Phoenix.

While there are fewer cars there, Austin has a larger fleet, and we plan to expand that number to many hundreds between Austin and Atlanta.

The experience of using the Uber app to request an autonomous car, getting matched, and riding in it was phenomenal and highly motivating for the team.

Many driver-partners are concerned about potential job losses as autonomous vehicles become more prevalent. How is Uber addressing these concerns?

Currently, we have only a few dozen autonomous vehicles in Austin. We firmly believe in a hybrid network that includes both human drivers and couriers alongside autonomous vehicles.

That's why our platform is built as a hybrid system.