Uber, a company expected to benefit from the advancements in a big way, said recently that it wouldn’t be phasing out drivers entirely. “We believe ride-sharing will be a mix — with services provided by both drivers and self-driving Ubers,” according to the Uber blog.
Nevertheless, it’s clearly a concern of Uber drivers, who aren’t exactly thrilled about the notion of losing their jobs to some software.
“We don’t expect Uber to move to driverless cars in New York City anytime soon, but they can expect we would launch an aggressive campaign, the likes of which they have yet to see, to halt such a move,” Jim Conigliaro Jr., founder of the Independent Drivers Guild, which represents 35,000 Uber drivers in the New York City area, said in an email.