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ByJustinPritchard and Tom Krisher The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO The op- tion to hail a ride in a self- driving car, which was sci- ence fiction just a few years ago, will soon be available to Uber users in Pitts- burgh, the first time the technology has been of- fered to the general public. Within weeks, the com- pany announced Thursday, customers will be able to opt into a test program and summon an autonomous Ford Fusion. But since the technology has not been perfected, the cars will come with human backup drivers to handle any unex- pected situations. Although other compa- nies including Google are testing self-driving cars on public roads, none offers rides to regular people. As an enticement, the autono- mous rides will be free, the company said. Uber, which has a self- driving research lab in Pittsburgh, has no imme- diate plans to deploy au- tonomous cars in other cities. But in an interview with The Associated Press, CEO Travis Kalanick said development of the vehi- cles is paramount for the San Francisco company, which has grown exponen- tially after starting seven years ago. "We've got to be laser- focused on getting this to market, because it's not a side project for us," he said. "This is everything. This is all the marbles for Uber." Without drivers, the cost of hailing a ride will be cheaper than owning a car, changing the way we all get around, Kalanick has said. By using human backup drivers, Uber is basically testing the technology and taking people along for the ride, said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina profes- sor who studies self-driv- ing technology. "Part of this is marketing in the sense that they're go- ing to be doing continued research and development of these systems," he said. Uber also announced that it was acquiring a startup called Otto that has focused on developing self-driving big rigs and is stocked with big talent in the still-small world of self- driving technology, includ- ing Anthony Levandowski, one of the field's pioneers. Kalanick said the acquisi- tion signals Uber's intent to get into the movement of goods and freight. In another deal, the com- pany announced a $300 million alliance with Volvo to supply vehicles and tech- nology. The announce- ments may push it ahead of its prime competitor, Lyft, which earlier this year took a $500 million investment from General Motors. Those arrangements are part of a flurry of deals be- tween Silicon Valley tech companies, traditional au- tomakers and ride-hailing companies as they vie for autonomous car leadership. Google has been testing self-driving cars on public roads since 2009 but has never offered large-scale rides to the public. Uber's move to haul pas- sengers with autonomous vehicles is not surprising, given the company's history of pushing into gray areas with little or no regulation, Walker Smith said. Local laws in Pittsburgh may require a driver be- hind the wheel, but Penn- sylvania has no laws gov- erning autonomous cars and their role in ride-hail- ing, he said. He predicted that driv- ers will often have to in- tervene in Pittsburgh, with its winding, hilly roads and vast number of bridges. Each winter the city gets about 30 inches of snow, which can cover lane lines and trick autonomous car sensors that use them to help guide the ride. Use of the backup driv- ers is also an acknowledge- ment that current autono- mous driving systems can- not handle the wide range of unpredictable circum- stances on public roads. Timothy Carone, a Notre Dame professor who has written about the future of automation, noted that Uber is mitigating the risk with its own drivers — un- like Tesla Motors, which put semi-autonomous tech- nology in the hands of indi- vidual customers. "This is a way to get au- tonomous cars out there and accepted and increase the adoption rate," Carone said. "It will take a decade of testing before an 18-year- old can get in the car and tell it where to go." Uber-branded test cars have been on Pittsburgh roads for several months. Standing at a bus stop, An- thony Fielder of the suburb of Carnegie was open to the idea. "I'd be willing to try it as long as there's a real hu- man there to hit the brakes, you know, if the thing goes belly-up," he said. "We can only rely on technology so much or it's going to bite us." Kalanick would not speculate on when Uber might be ready to dispense with the human driver, saying that full automa- tion can only be used now in limited places with lit- tle traffic. That's different from the relative chaos of even a small downtown, much less a big city where drivers do not always fol- low the rules. Carone expects Uber competitors will now ac- celerate self-driving tests or merger plans. He thinks they will adopt the same risk-management ap- proach as Uber. Ford Mo- tor Co., for example, said earlier this week that it will have a fully autono- mous car with no steer- ing wheel or pedals on the road by 2021, but it will only be used by car-shar- ing services and will not be sold to individuals. AUTOMOBILES Self-drivingcarsgopublic;UberoffersridesinPittsburgh By Elliot Spagat The Associated Press SAN DIEGO California home sales cooled in July, a research firm said Thurs- day, amid tight supplies and prices that were out of reach for many poten- tial buyers. There were 41,653 new and existing houses and condominiums sold in the state, down 11 percent from June and 10.3 per- cent from the same pe- riod a year ago, CoreLogic Inc. said. The annual de- cline is partly because this year had two fewer busi- ness days in July than last year, but it also reflects a much slower market than last summer's. The median sales price was $432,000, little changed from $435,000 in June and up 4.1 percent from $415,000 a year ear- lier. It marked the 53rd straight month that prices have risen from a year ear- lier, though increases have moderated in the last two years. The median price is still well below its peak of $487,000 in May 2007. The California Associ- ation of Realtors blamed low inventory and afford- ability constraints for the sluggish July, conditions that it expects will con- tinue in the short term. The trade group said there was a 3.6-month supply of unsold single-family homes in the state last month, well below what is considered a normal mar- ket of five to seven months. The San Francisco Bay area posted its weakest July in five years with 7,901 homes sold, a decline of 10.5 percent from June and 13.5 percent from a year ago, according to Core- Logic. It was the fourth straight month that sales fell from a year earlier in the nine-county region. The Bay area's median sales price was $700,000, down 1.4 percent from an all-time high of $710,000 but down 6.3 percent from $658,500 in July 2015. It ended a three-month run of setting new highs for the region. Southern California re- corded 21,705 home sales in July, down 11.3 percent from a month earlier and down 10.7 percent from July 2015, CoreLogic said. The median sales price in the six-county region was $465,000, unchanged from June and up 6.2 per- cent from $438,000 in July 2015. 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