Skip to main content

Uber forced to take its self-driving cars off the streets of San Francisco

Uber self-driving Volvo XC90
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Uber has suspended testing of its self-driving cars in San Francisco until further notice, the company announced Wednesday.

The ride-hailing giant said it was forced to abandon trials of its self-driving technology on the city’s streets after California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revoked the registrations for its autonomous vehicles.

“We have stopped our self-driving pilot in California as the DMV has revoked the registrations for our self-driving cars,” an Uber spokesperson told Digital Trends in an emailed statement. “We’re now looking at where we can redeploy these cars but remain 100 percent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules.”

Explaining its actions, the DMV said: “It was determined that the registrations were improperly issued for these vehicles because they were not properly marked as test vehicles. Concurrently, the department invited Uber to seek a permit so their vehicles can operate legally in California.”

The move comes a week after the DMV ordered Uber to halt tests of its 16 self-driving Volvo XC90 vehicles in San Francisco, insisting the company needed special permission to drive the cars on California’s public roads.

But Uber continued, arguing that special permits weren’t required because an on-board technician was constantly monitoring the car’s behavior and was ready to intervene at a moment’s notice if necessary.

As the DMV began threatening legal action, Mayor Ed Lee last week became involved, calling on the ride-hailing company to “stop the unpermitted and unlawful testing of autonomous vehicles.”

But now, by revoking the registrations on Wednesday, the DMV has forced Uber’s self-driving cars off the streets of San Francisco. The DMV has invited Uber to apply for the required permits, saying it “fully supports the advancement of autonomous technologies,” but insists it “must be tested responsibly.”

For many who’ve been following the spat between Uber and the DMV, the eventual outcome won’t come as a huge surprise. Uber, which happens to be headquartered in the city, had come under increasing pressure in the last week to put the brakes on its self-driving trials. Its cause hadn’t been helped by a number of reports in recent days, including how one of the autonomous cars ran a red light. There was also the suggestion that its technology was causing its vehicles to make dangerous maneuvers across bike lanes in the city, an issue that Uber itself acknowledged.

In the meantime, Uber will continue testing its self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh, where it’s been conducting trials on public roads – with paying passengers as well as an on-board technician – since September 2016, though general testing started back in May.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
We now know what the self-driving Apple Car might look like
A render that shows what the Apple Car might look like.

Thanks to several 3D concept renders, we now know what the future self-driving Apple Car might look like.

Vanarama, a British car-leasing company, took inspiration from other Apple products, as well as Apple patents, in order to accurately picture the rumored Apple car.

Read more
Tesla pulls latest Full Self-Driving beta less than a day after release
The view from a Tesla vehicle.

False collision warnings and other issues have prompted Tesla to pull the latest version of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta less than a day after rolling it out for some vehicle owners.

Tesla decided to temporarily roll back to version 10.2 of FSD on Sunday following reports from some drivers of false collision warnings, sudden braking without any apparent reason, and the disappearance of the Autosteer option, among other issues.

Read more
Waymo’s self-driving cars can’t get enough of one dead-end street
waymo

Waymo has been testing its self-driving cars in San Francisco for the last decade. But an apparent change to the vehicles’ routing has caused many of them to make a beeline for a dead-end street in a quiet part of the city, causing residents there to wonder what on earth is going on.

At CBS news crew recently visited the site -- 15th Avenue north of Lake Street in Richmond -- to see if it could work out why so many of Waymo’s autonomous cars are showing up, turning around, and then driving right out again.

Read more