Uber has announced that it is in the early stages of testing self-driving car technology with the ultimate goal of removing the need for drivers from its ride-hailing business. The company, currently valued at somewhere upwards of 60 billion, announced it has begun testing a Ford Fusion retro-fitted with sensors and cameras on the streets of Pittsburgh. "Real-world testing is critical to our efforts to develop self-driving technology," the company said in a blog post announcing the move. "Self-driving cars have the potential to save millions of lives and improve quality of life for people around the world." The tests will be run by Uber's Advanced Technologies Center, which the company opened in Pittsburgh in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University in February last year, with the goal of inducting autonomous vehicles into its fleet by 2020.