A Ford Fusion Hybrid has been spotted on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, equipped with laser scanners, cameras, radar, and other components of a high tech kit reminiscent of Google's test cars that toured the streets of San Francisco a couple of years back.

"If you're driving around Pittsburgh in the coming weeks you might see a strange sight: a car that looks like it should be driven by a superhero," wrote Uber in its blog announcing the beginnings of self-driving tests. Or rather, it looks like it should (eventually) be driven by... nobody.

Phasing Out Humans

That's right, Uber is officially making good on its plans to eventually phase out the human employees -- ahem, "contractors" -- whose appeals for the benefits and rights that workers in traditional driving jobs normally get have so vexed the unicorn startup over the past few months.

But for now, humans still remain in the drivers seat, even in the self-driving Uber cars currently being trained to eventually work without their input.

"When it's in self-driving mode, a trained driver will be in the driver's seat monitoring operations," wrote Uber on its blog. "Real-world testing is critical to our efforts to develop self-driving technology. We believe this technology will mean less congestion, more affordable and accessible transportation, and far fewer lives cost in car accidents."

It could also, of course, mean higher profits for Uber -- though the company rightly pointed out that nearly all fatal car accidents are caused by human error.

The Driverless Future

And Uber, of course, isn't the only company working towards a driverless future (Google, who got a head start is practically there already).

As Mashable noted, the Uber blog announcement happened around the same time that photos of a self-driving Chevy Bolt electric car were released showing ongoing testing in San Franscisco. Lyft and General Motors are behind that test, as they recently partnered to begin working on building an automated fleet to rival Uber's.

Meanwhile back in Pittsburgh, the long-ranging disruptive economic implications of a driverless ride-sharing service didn't phase the city's mayor William Peduto, who was quoted in Uber's blog praising the move as the next step in Pittsburgh's rust belt rejuvenation.

"From the first steel mills to the laboratories of Pitt and Carnegie Mellon" -- the latter institution from which Uber famously hired away nearly the entire robotics department -- "Pittsburgh has a long history of innovation," said Peduto. "Now we're taking another step forward, this time as home to Uber's Advanced Technologies Center, where some of the world's leading innovators are helping shape the future of transportation."

No doubt Uber, Lyft, Google, and others are shaping the future of transportation, along with the future of driving jobs, for better or worse.