Uber: 'we'll ease the transition to self-driving cars'

Travis Kalanick says Uber has an opportunity to push adoption of autonomous vehicles that, he claims, offer better safety and less congestion for cities

Uber has claimed that its "optimistic leadership" would help ease the transition for city authorities as they deal with the introduction of self-driving cars.

Speaking at a conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Kalanick said self-driving cars could reduce the 30,000 annual deaths on US roads by using centrally controlled, algorithmic traffic management systems to prevent accidents and reduce congestion at peak times. But he also intimated that self-driving cars would be part of Uber's plans to expand its business in the transport industry.