Why Uber is testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh

San Francisco

SILICON Valley is the land of the beta test, the constant tweak, where companies habitually release products still in development to see how they work in the hands of consumers.

Last week, that iterative approach, so ubiquitous in software, entered a new realm when Uber announced that it would begin testing a fleet of 100 self-driving cars for hire in Pittsburgh by the end of the month.

The move means that the streets of a large American cit…