In an industrial corner of Pittsburgh’s Strip district lies a quiet alley lined with rusted steel beams. They support an old railway bridge that hints at this steel town’s past. But tucked at the end of the alley, hidden from the view of passers-by, sits a gleaming research centre that points to a rather different future, one in which self-driving taxi fleets will have revolutionised urban transportation.

This is the vision of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center, a research facility that has become a central focus for the San Francisco-based transportation company as it tries to develop driverless cars. The effort began just 18 months ago, and Uber has spared no expense in its aggressive effort to build the best autonomous car research program in the world — from scratch.

Some of this lavish ambition is on display in the building itself, with a giant floor-to-ceiling glass frontage overlooking the Allegheny River — the company spent some $30m on remodelling it during the past year, according to permit records.