The Self-DrivingCar Wars

To the outside world, Uber’s 2016 decision to debut self-driving cars in Pittsburgh may have been a surprise. But to anyone who knows Carnegie Mellon, says Martial Hebert, director of the school’s Robotics Institute, the place “has been a petri dish for the skills necessary for developing self-driving technology.” Its lineage dates back to Darpa’s 2004 inaugural Grand Challenge, when CMU’s car Sandstorm led the pack. Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group first landed here in 2015. Since then, veterans of that group— also with deep ties to CMU—have gone on to found Argo AI, the startup with billion-dollar backing from Ford, and Aurora Innovation, which develops software and sensors for autonomous cars and raised $90 million in 2018.