It’s important to note that the Bay Area plays an inextricable role in the development of self-driving cars, but Pittsburgh has been its base.

Google, arguably, was the first major company to tackle autonomous cars, testing a self-driving Toyota Prius on California freeways in 2009 and later on city streets around its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. But Google’s pioneering self-driving efforts were lead by robotics scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, located in the heart of Pittsburgh.

Here are five reasons Pittsburgh is and was firmly in control of our self-driving future.