Uber Halts Testing in San Francisco

Only hours after launching its new service of offering passengers rides in self-driving cars, it has been told to stop. Regulators in California state that Uber requires a state permit to continue with its new program, or face legal action.

The new service, combined with Uber’s new fleet of vehicles, gave passengers the option of requesting a self-driving car when booking a journey. The car would still be accompanied by a safety driver. 

Uber had claimed that it would defy the regulators and continue to test its new vehicles on the streets of San Francisco without a permit, claiming that it doesn’t require one due to the presence of the safety driver at the wheel, but has now decided to test elsewhere after being repeatedly threatened with legal action.

The company continues to test in Pittsburgh where it doesn't require a permit. There are still many states where they test without a permit, like in Pennsylvania, if they continue to pursue this line of not obtaining a permit due to deeming it "unnecessary".

The DMV stated that it is the use of “autonomous technology” that necessitates the permit, but Uber countered that their cars do not yet constitute “autonomous technology” because of the human driver. The operators aren’t required to have their hands on the wheel itself but are on hand to assist, and are therefore similar to other forms of assistive driving technology, such as Tesla’s autopilot feature which doesn’t require a permit.

Just before the order to obtain a permit was given, a video was uploaded to YouTube of an Uber self-driving car running a red light, an incident that the company has attributed to “human error” and has said it is investigating.