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

  • ADVI research shows most Australians want self-driving cars
    October 12, 2016
    Seventy per cent of Australians want a self-driving car able to take over when they feel tired or bored, according to new research by the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative (ADVI), announced at this week’s ITS World Congress. In addition, just under three quarters (73%) of Australians would like an autonomous vehicle to transport them when they feel physically or mentally unable to drive manually. The survey, of 5,000 Australians aged over 18, is the first comprehensive national study of the Aus
  • US Automated Vehicle Framework to 'slash red tape'
    May 7, 2025
    NHTSA insists safety will be prioritised and 'unnecessary' regulation removed
  • USDoT looks at the costs and potential benefits of connected vehicles
    October 26, 2017
    David Crawford looks at latest lessons learned from the trials of connected vehicles in the US. The progress of connected vehicle (CV) technologies takes centre stage among the hot topics highlighted in the September 2017 edition – the first since 2014 – of the ‘ITS Benefits, Costs and Lessons Learned’ survey from the US ITS Joint Program Office (JPO). The organisation is an arm of the US Department of Transportation (USDoT).
  • TRL offers micromobility testing service 
    April 2, 2021
    Geofencing testing can assess users’ ability to control e-scooters