Uber to open self-driving test track in Findlay Township

Months of speculation have come to an end after Uber Technologies announced the purchase of an almost 600-acre parcel in Findlay Township that will be used for a self-driving test track.

Uber spokeswoman Sarah Abboud confirmed the purchase via email to the Tribune-Review, adding that she does not have “further details to share at this time, but more to come in the coming months.”

The move comes almost a year after the San Francisco -based ridesharing company resumed testing its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Uber’s fleet of autonomous Volvo SUVs had been grounded for most of 2018 following a fatal crash involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars in Tempe, Ariz. after the vehicle hit and killed a woman walking her bike across a dark street.

Uber shut down its testing across the country and eventually pulled out of Arizona where it has a major operations center. The company resumed testing the vehicles in Pittsburgh last December, limiting what had been a citywide initiative to the Strip District.

Still, Uber has been expanding in Pittsburgh over the last decade, with an Advanced Technology Center that opened in the Strip District in February 2015 to work on self-driving cars. The company lured away 40 of Carnegie Mellon University’s top researchers, many with deep backgrounds in robotics.

The company also has a 178-acre site in Hazelwood where a self-driving semi truck is tested.