"This vehicle is part of our early research efforts regarding mapping, safety and autonomy systems," Uber spokeswoman Trina Smith said in an email. But it is not a self-driving car, the company said later after word leaked out.
Uber's prototype car has a protruding navigation equipment on its roof, which Uber spokeswoman Trina Smith told the Pittsburgh Business Times is part of the company's research on mapping, autonomy and safety systems.
Uber's spokeswoman declined to give further details elaborating Uber's research on the self-driving car, the publication said.
This has been the work of "Uber Advanced Technologies Center" manned by robotics specialists from Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University," according to Fortune.com
The self-driving car technology has been touted to bring cost efficiency to vehicle-service and other taxi-service providers like Uber, Barclays analyst Brian A. Johnson said in a report published by Fortune.
Google has been working on driverless car technology since 2010 and has said it expects to have a finished product by 2020.
This summer, the company's self-driving cars are graduating from the test track and will hit the real road in Google's hometown of Mountain View, Calif. The car has no steering wheel or pedals, so it is up to the internal computers to do all of the driving. (However, to keep with California law these early treks will have a human aboard with a removable steering wheel and pedals, should something go wrong.)
