California Regulator Orders Uber to Halt its Self-driving Car Service

Uber Self-driving San FranciscoOn Wednesday we revealed that Uber had launched its self-driving cars in San Francisco, three months after launching its initial self-driving vehicle pilot in Pittsburgh. Well it turns out, the program could be short-lived, after the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) ordered the company to take the cars off the road.

Companies who want to use self-driving cars on public roads in California require a permit in order to do so. Uber is using Volvo SUVs that drive themselves, but that still have a “driver” at the wheel. It believes that as such, the cars are not autonomous, therefore no permit is required. The California DMV disagrees. In a terse statement on its website it said:

“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.”

The 20 companies who have obtained permits include Volkswagen, Tesla, Honda, Ford, BMW and Nissan, but significantly not Volvo. Uber has also come under fire after video footage emerged of its self-driving cars in San Francisco running red lights. Uber blamed driver error and said it had suspended the drivers involved.

We asked Uber if its autonomous cars are still running in California but have not had a response as yet. However, in a blog post published a couple of days ago the company said:

“We understand that there is a debate over whether or not we need a testing permit to launch self-driving Ubers in San Francisco. We have looked at this issue carefully and we don’t believe we do. Before you think, “there they go again” let us take a moment to explain: First, we are not planning to operate any differently than in Pittsburgh, where our pilot has been running successfully for several months. Second, the rules apply to cars that can drive without someone controlling or monitoring them. For us, it’s still early days and our cars are not yet ready to drive without a person monitoring them.”