According to several reports, Uber is planning to buy or has already placed a huge order to buy Mercedes-Benz S-class cars.
Reports suggest that the ride-hailing company is planning to have fleet of self-driving cars by 2020. With this effort, the company hopes to reduce the largest cost factor that is drivers, if it can incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet.
Not only do drivers cost for Uber, they have also been a source of several complaints and legal issues in the recent times. Apart from this, Uber might also be concerned about General Motors investing heavily in its rival Lyft to develop autonomous vehicles.
According to a report by Germany's Manager Magazin, Uber placed a huge order to buy 100,000 Mercedes-Benz S-Class vehicles for an estimated cost of €10b.However, the details of the deal still to be revealed.
A source close to Uber told Reuters, "They wanted autonomous cars."
"It seemed like they were shopping around."
Uber could be perhaps interested in Mercedes because it has been testing semi-autonomous driving technologies for some time now.
These technologies include adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, active lane change assist, active brake assist, evasive steering assist and active blind spot assist.
Though, these technologies do not fully make the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class, a fully self-driving vehicle, yet they are quite helpful in avoiding crashes and high speed accidents and can save lives.
Apart from the technological hurdles, legislation has also been a major roadblock for autonomous vehicles to hit the streets.
With present legislations making it compulsory for qualified drivers to be inside the vehicle and be ready to take the steering in hands at a moment's notice, it can be quite hard to even test a self-driving car.
In the recent times, tech-giant Google has been pursuing US legislators to pass new laws that can encourage makers of self-driving cars to test out their cars on roads.
