zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Tech
/
'Safety Third' Is The Running Joke At Uber's Self-Driving Car Unit
'Safety Third' Is The Running Joke At Uber's Self-Driving Car Unit-September 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:40

Yesterday, we zeroed in on the latest between and Google’s self-driving car project, Waymo, courtesy of a superbly-detailed profile of the situation . But there’s one more factoid that’s worth pulling out: they actually have “Safety Third” as a slogan. Much as it’s something we use , it’s a joke at Uber’s self-driving unit.

It wasn’t all pretty for Waymo. In addition to covering front-to-back how Waymo came to accuse former employee and now Uber self-driving guru Anthony Levandowski of theft, the piece reported a new nugget about Google’s seemingly wishful attempt at courting Tesla founder Elon Musk. At one point, Bloomberg reported, Google pitched Musk on the idea of outfitting Tesla vehicles with Google’s own self-driving tech. Musk declined.

Inside the vicious patent fight over self-driving technology.

But this bit about what’s supposedly a funny joke at Uber’s self-driving car project is quite a touch:

Levandowski seemed to struggle in other ways as well. In December, Uber dispatched 16 self-driving cars, with safety drivers, in San Francisco from the California DMV. The test went poorly—on the first day, a self-driving car ran a red light, and the DMV ordered Uber to halt its program in the state.

The company suffered further embarrassment when a New York Times, citing leaked documents, suggested that Uber’s explanation for the traffic violation—that it had been caused by human error—wasn’t complete. The car malfunctioned, and the driver failed to stop it.

The misdirection came as no surprise to the Uber employees who’d spent time at Otto’s San Francisco headquarters. Someone there had distributed stickers—in OSHA orange—with a tongue-in-cheek slogan: “Safety third.”

Now, Uber’s self-driving cars are reportedly performing OK on the roadways. But damn. That’s certainly an ingenious way to proudly tout support for flouting laws.

If you have one of the OSHA orange “Safety Third” stickers or have something to share about Uber, you can reach me at , or my contact for Signal can be found .

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Tech
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish pension fund PensionDanmark is dumping all of its stock and putting the U.S. EV maker on its exclusion list of the companies it chooses to invest in – or not. The fund is selling all of its shares due to Elon Musk’s refusal to enter into labor agreements...
Sep 10, 2025
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Experts have said that one of the ways to speed up EV adoption is for them to support . The ability for owners to power their house off their car or from the grid is vital. Just nine EVs on the market currently support bidirectional charging, but now VW...
Sep 10, 2025
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM is still dealing with the fallout of its decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of developing its own in-house system. In the last eight months, the company has had to deal with while still maintaining its in-house system will be “.” Since neither of...
Sep 10, 2025
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
fans are already cooling on despite more options on the market and news of upcoming models from the likes of Chevy and Ram. The and have yet to be released, while the has recently joined the and for sale in the U.S. And, yet, all of these current and...
Sep 10, 2025
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Despite in investments for the development of in the , not a single charging station had gone live thanks to — until now. The first EV charger paid for by Biden’s Bipartisan deal has come online in Ohio, according to , which marks the operational start of what the...
Sep 10, 2025
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
knows that you keep coming back for the and Kirkland brand, but you can now also buy a cheaper at your local warehouse. Chevy notified its dealers that members are eligible for a $1,000 rebate on the through January 2, according to . The discount is part of ,...
Sep 10, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved