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

  • NavFusion provides map updates via a smart phone app
    November 28, 2013
    A new app that connects a vehicle’s systems to the internet opens up a range of possibilities as Jon Masters discovers. Sometimes the most straightforward or simple of ideas can be the most significant. So it seems with the latest development from Hungarian navigation software supplier NNG. The company’s software features in-vehicle infotainment systems and has launched NavFusion – which connects a vehicles’ sat nav programs to smartphones. NavFusion is being incorporated into NNG’s iGO navigation s
  • Aimsun unveils test platform for AVs in digital cities
    May 24, 2019
    Aimsun has released a software platform for the large-scale design and validation of path planning algorithms for autonomous vehicles (AV). The company says Aimsun Auto allows test vehicles to drive inside digital cities - virtual copies of transportation networks, where users can safely explore the limits of AV technology. Paolo Rinelli, global head of product management at Aimsun, says Auto removes the need to drive around seeking conditions that users want to test or to “script each actor’s behaviour
  • Internet-connected cars their functionality and safety challenges
    February 27, 2013
    Internet-connected cars are poised to flood the market in the near future. Pete Goldin considers the functionality they offer, the technology they use and the challenge they represent in terms of driver safety. Many vehicles on the road today offer some sort of inter­net connectivity and experts agree that this capability will become a competi­tive differentiator in the automotive industry in the next few years. The era of the digital vehicle, it seems, has started. “We clearly see that cars in the near f
  • Crash course in workzone safety
    April 26, 2021
    A vehicle crashing through a workzone is an ever-present risk. As US National Work Zone Awareness Week approaches, Alan Dron asks what chance there is of improving the situation