Skip to main content

Uber halts autonomous vehicle testing in California

Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies has halted its self-driving car testing in San Francisco just one week the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revoked registrations for the vehicles, saying the company did not have the necessary state permits for autonomous driving. Uber, which had been testing the cars for just one week, is expanding is self-driving testing in Arizona. It has been testing autonomous cars in Pittsburgh since September. Anthony Levandowski, head of Uber’s Advanced Tech
January 3, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies has halted its self-driving car testing in San Francisco just one week the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revoked registrations for the vehicles, saying the company did not have the necessary state permits for autonomous driving.

Uber, which had been testing the cars for just one week, is expanding is self-driving testing in Arizona. It has been testing autonomous cars in Pittsburgh since September.

Anthony Levandowski, head of 8336 Uber’s Advanced Technology Group, said in a statement on the company’s website that “we respectfully disagree with the California Department of Motor Vehicles legal interpretation of today’s autonomous regulations; in particular that Uber needs a testing permit to operate its self-driving cars in San Francisco.”

He notes that the regulations apply to autonomous vehicles, which he says are cars defined as being equipped with technology that can “drive a vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring by a human operator.” However, he said the cars Uber has on the roads in San Francisco are not capable of driving “without … active physical control or monitoring”.

He claims that self-driving Ubers operate in the same way as vehicles equipped with advanced driver assist technologies, such as 8534 Tesla auto-pilot and other OEM’s traffic jam assist, which operate in California without any DMV permit at all.

On 13 December, the DMV issued a statement on its website saying, “The California DMV encourages the responsible exploration of self-driving cars. We have a permitting process in place to ensure public safety as this technology is being tested. Twenty manufacturers have already obtained permits to test hundreds of cars on California roads. Uber shall do the same.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Connected Vehicles test vehicle to vehicle applications
    January 19, 2012
    In the US, the ITS Joint Program Office is about to conduct a series of Driver Clinics intended to gauge public reaction to Connected Vehicle safety technologies and applications. Starting in August, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) applications with everyday drivers in what it describes as 'normal operational scenarios'. These Driver Clinics are being carried out at six locations across the US and together with the subsequent model deployment beginning in 2012,
  • GM to start autonomous vehicle manufacturing and testing in Michigan
    December 16, 2016
    Following the signing of the SAVE Act legislation to support autonomous vehicle testing and deployment in Michigan, General Motors is to begin testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. GM also announced it will produce the next generation of its autonomous test vehicles at its Orion Township assembly plant beginning in early 2017. Testing is already underway on GM’s Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan and will now expand to public roads on the facility’s outskirts. Within the next few months,
  • Uber ‘running at a loss’
    August 7, 2015
    Leaked financial reports appear to indicate that car-share firm Uber is operating at a loss. According to internal financial documents obtained by the Gawker website (link http://gawker.com/here-are-the-internal-documents-that-prove-uber-is-a-mo-1704234157), Uber has lost tens of millions of dollars since 2012, and the documents suggest that CEO Travis Kalanick’s boasts about the company’s exponential revenue growth may be overblown. Gawker published images of the leaked documents online; an unaudited re
  • Favourable legislation essential for developing successful test sites, finds Frost & Sullivan
    May 26, 2016
    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Global Test Sites and Incentive Programs for Automated Cars, finds unfavourable legislation in many parts of the world can delay the testing, validation and subsequent introduction of automated vehicle technologies by a few years. Despite the availability of advanced automated functional testing in several parts of the world, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and automotive technology providers favour North American test beds to the ones in Europe and Asia, says