Image copyright Volvo Image caption Uber had started to pick up passengers in specially-modified Volvo self-driving cars

Ride-sharing firm Uber has suspended its test of self-driving cars in San Francisco after regulators revoked the registration of the vehicles.

Passengers had recently been given the option of a booking a self-driving vehicle.

But authorities had threatened legal action if Uber did not obtain a special permit to test the cars.

Uber argues that because they came with a safety driver and are not fully autonomous, the permit was not needed.

"We're now looking at where we can redeploy these cars, but remain 100% committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules," Uber said.

San Francisco is Uber's second trial city for the new technology. In Pittsburgh, the company has been running its driverless trial since September and has not required special permits.

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Not yet fully autonomous

Although the cars are promoted as "self-driving", they must constantly be monitored by an actual driver who can take control any time the software should fail.

Uber says its technology is not sophisticated enough to have cars continuously drive by themselves - and therefore the permit demanded in San Francisco is not needed.

Image copyright Uber Image caption Uber began using Ford cars to test its self-driving technologies in Pittsburgh earlier this year

But regulators say that 20 other companies testing self-driving technology in California - including Google, Tesla and Ford - do so with the special permit which requires the firms to report any accidents to the authorities. This potentially undermines the company's reputation, as the reports are available to the public.

Just before the city's Department of Motor Vehicles threatened Uber with legal action over the missing permit, a video of an Uber self-driving vehicle running a red light in San Francisco had been uploaded to YouTube.

The trials are designed for the firm to identify flaws and glitches in the technology behind the autonomous driving.</s>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc. [UBER.UL] has removed its self-driving cars from San Francisco streets after California regulators cracked down on the program because the company had not obtained a permit to test autonomous vehicles.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Wednesday it revoked the registration of 16 Uber self-driving cars after a weeklong battle with the ride-services company. The regulator had demanded that Uber obtain a permit to test its self-driving cars on public roads - just as 20 other companies, including Tesla and Ford, have done -- but Uber said it wasn't obligated to do so.

"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," a spokeswoman said in a statement.</s>SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — In a victory for the California DMV in its standoff with Uber over the company’s self-driving cars, Uber on Wednesday agreed to halt the pilot program being tested in San Francisco.

Uber representatives had been in talks with state officials earlier in the day when the DMV announced it would move to revoke the registration of Uber’s self-driving cars. The vehicles were still being seen on San Francisco streets despite admonishment from the state Department of Motor Vehicles last week.

The debut of the self-driving vehicles drew safety concerns after a video was posted showed a self-driving Uber vehicle running a red light within hours of the program starting.
• Read The Letter Sent To Uber By DMV On Permit Requirment

“Consistent with the department’s position that Uber’s vehicles are autonomous vehicles, the DMV has taken action to revoke the registration of 16 vehicles owned by Uber,” the DMV said in a statement. “It was determined that the registrations were improperly issued for these vehicles because they were not properly marked as test vehicles.”

The DMV has invited Uber to seek a permit so the vehicles can operate legally in California.

“We have stopped our self-driving pilot in California as the DMV has revoked the registrations for our self-driving cars,” Uber said in its own 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.”

Uber had kicked off its public pilot program in San Francisco a week ago on the morning of December 14. Hours later, the California Department of Motor Vehicles sent a letter saying that the service was illegal until Uber got a permit required for putting “autonomous vehicles” on public roads.

Uber knew about the permit requirement, but argued that its cars do not meet the state’s definition of an “autonomous vehicle” because they require a person behind the wheel to monitor and intervene if needed.

The San Franciso program launch expanded a deployment of the self-driving cars it started in Pittsburgh in September. The testing lets everyday people experience the cars as Uber works to identify glitches before expanding the technology’s use in San Francisco and elsewhere.

The incidents of self-driving Uber cars weren’t the only safety concerns raised.

“While I was a passenger and while the vehicle was in self-driving mode, it made two illegal right hand turns across the bike lane,” explained Brian Wiedenmeier of the San Francisco Bike Coalition.

“They said they would start working on it working on a fix,” said Weidenmeier. “And then two days later, Uber announced that it was launching service in San Francisco with automated self-driving vehicle.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee joined in the calls from the state for Uber to stop operating the self-driving vehicles in the city without a permit last week. He reiterated that stance Wednesday.

“They should not be operating this vehicle technology on our streets without a permit,” Lee told KPIX 5.

It’s a message Mayor Lee personally delivered to Uber chief Travis Kalanik as well.

“I support the technology, but we are going to have a setback if people are not putting safety first,” explained Lee.

When asked what his response was, Lee replied, “He thought that he was still being safe. I saw those videos and that was why I was so adamant about him complying.”

The clash over the self-driving car program is not the first time that Uber and other tech companies have flouted the rules, whether it was picking up riders at the airport without permits or paying local business taxes.

In fact the city doesn’t even know how many Uber drivers are operating in the city.

“We’ve asked for data to identify exactly how many car shares there are and, to this date, we haven’t received that information,” said SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose.</s>Uber halts testing of self-driving cars on San Francisco roads after registration revoked

Ride share company Uber has stopped testing self-driving cars in San Francisco after its registration was revoked.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it took action against the company because the 16 self-driving cars had not been properly permitted.

For the last week, the agency has been demanding that Uber shut down its program and comply with regulations requiring a permit to test self-driving cars on public roads.

Uber said it was not obligated to have a permit because its vehicles require continuous monitoring by a person in the car.

San Francisco was supposed to be Uber's second testing ground for its self-driving cars, after the company unveiled the program in Pittsburgh in September.

"We're now looking at where we can redeploy these cars but remain 100 per cent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules," an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement.

California defines autonomous vehicles as having the capability to drive "without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person".

Uber has argued that the law does not apply to its cars, which cannot stay in autonomous mode continuously.

A driver and an engineer are in the front seats to take over frequently in sticky traffic situations such as construction zones or pedestrian crossings.

Uber's defiance was met with threats of legal action from the DMV and the state attorney-general.

Uber permit would take less than three days to process: DMV

The DMV told Uber that if it had obtained a permit, the regulator would have given the green light to the self-driving pilot.

DMV director Jean Shiomoto said in a letter sent to Uber that she would "personally help to ensure an expedited review and approval process", which she said could take less than three days.

The permit process is largely seen as a public safety measure, as regulations also require that companies provide the DMV with accident reports.

Uber, however, has complained that its home state has favoured complex rules over technological innovation.

It is not yet clear whether Uber will apply for the permit or simply bring the self-driving cars to another state.

Another 20 companies exploring self-driving cars — including Alphabet's Google, Tesla Motors and Ford Motor Co — have obtained California DMV permits for 130 cars.

Uber opened up the self-driving car program to San Francisco passengers on December 14, but has been testing the cars on city roadways for more than a month.</s>SAN FRANCISCO: Uber on Wednesday said it put the brakes on self-driving cars in California because state officials yanked registration for vehicles being used for a pilot program.

Uber taking its autonomous cars off San Francisco streets ended a clash between the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the on-demand ride service.

“We have stopped our self-driving pilot in California as the DMV has revoked the registrations for our self-driving cars,” San Francisco-based Uber said in a statement emailed to AFP.

“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.”

Self-driving Uber cars were being tested here in defiance of a state order to halt the program.

The ridesharing giant disputed the interpretation by the DMV that the cars require a special permit, saying they had the same autonomy capabilities as Tesla cars which have an optional “autopilot” feature.

Anthony Levandowski, Uber’s vice president for advanced technologies, said last week that as with the Teslas, the cars driven by Uber still have a driver capable of assuming control at any time.</s>Uber has been forced to remove its self-driving cars from San Francisco streets in a crackdown by state authorities.

California regulators put a halt to the program because the company had not obtained a permit to test autonomous vehicles.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Wednesday it had revoked the registration of 16 Uber self-driving cars after a weeklong battle with the car company.

The regulator demanded the firm get a permit to test its self-driving cars on public roads - but Uber didn't believe they needed one as their cars are not yet able to fully drive on their own.

The move comes as 20 other companies, including Tesla and Ford, have obtained permits - but Uber said it was not obligated to do so.

'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,' a spokeswoman said in a statement.

The move comes after a week of talks between the ride-sharing company and state regulators failed.

Uber maintains it does not need a permit because the cars are not sophisticated enough to continuously drive themselves, although the company promotes them as 'self-driving.'

The DMV said the registrations for the vehicles were improperly issued, because they were not suitably marked as test vehicles.

It invited Uber to seek a permit so their vehicles could operate legally in California — an offer the company said it did not plan to accept.

The ride-sharing company says the cars must constantly be monitored by a human driver trained to take control at any time, so do not fall under California's permitting requirements for 'autonomous vehicles.'

Questioning the definition of an autonomous vehicle is the latest example of Uber testing legal boundaries. In recent years, the company has argued with authorities in California and elsewhere about checks on the criminal backgrounds of its drivers, and whether those drivers should be treated as contractors or employees.

San Francisco is Uber's second self-driving city; its first cars have been cruising around Pittsburgh since September. The testing lets Uber identify glitches and gives everyday people a chance to interact with the technology — whether as a passenger, pedestrian or driver in another car.

As its engineers improve the technology, Uber plans to bring self-driving cars to other cities.

Operating without a permit arguably gives Uber a competitive advantage. Companies with one must report all crashes to the state, as well as every instance in which a person takes control during testing. All that information is public.

Waymo, a self-driving company created by Google and an Uber rival with a state permit, has disclosed 29 accidents involving its vehicles on public streets since 2010.

In Pittsburgh, Uber has not been required to release any information about crashes.

Waymo CEO John Krafcik declined to discuss Uber specifically when asked last week about California's permitting requirements for testing self-driving cars. But, he said, 'if there is a competitor taking unnecessary risks, that could be a bad thing.'

It didn't take long for Uber's self-driving cars to draw unwanted attention in San Francisco. Several witnesses documented instances where Uber Volvos didn't stop for red lights.

Uber said one incident in front of the city's Museum of Modern Art illustrated why its cars require constant monitoring by a human driver — and therefore didn't need a state permit.

San Francisco also has an active bicycle culture, and some of its leaders have criticized Uber for deploying cars that make right 'hook' turns across bike lanes at intersections.

The executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition said that on a test ride Uber gave him before the launch, the car twice made such turns. Brian Wiedenmeier said he told Uber officials and they promised to fix it. He said he had heard reports of other such turns on the pilot project's first day, but not since.

Before the San Francisco launch, the company said it told all employees sitting in the driver's seat to take the wheel for such turns. Meanwhile, it said it was working to improve the software.</s>California stopped Uber’s self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco. California DMV has revoked the registrations of the vehicles Uber had been using after the failure of a week of talks between the state and the ride-hailing company.</s>Uber Technologies Inc has removed its self-driving cars from San Francisco streets after California regulators cracked down on the week-old program because the company had not obtained a permit to test the vehicles.

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The California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Wednesday it revoked the registration of 16 Uber self-driving cars after a battle with the ride-services company. The agency had demanded that Uber comply with regulations requiring a permit to test self-driving cars on public roads - just as 20 other auto and technology companies have done.

Uber said it was not obligated to have a permit because its vehicles require monitoring by a person in the car.

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"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," an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement.

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California defines autonomous vehicles as having the capability to drive "without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person."

Uber has argued that its cars are not able to drive without a person monitoring them - a driver and an engineer are in the front seats to take over frequently in situations such as a construction zone or pedestrian crossing - so the law does not apply.

Uber's defiance was met with threats of legal action from the DMV and the state attorney general.

The DMV told Uber it can continue its self-driving pilot if it obtains the permit. Agency director Jean Shiomoto said in a letter sent to Uber on Wednesday that she would "personally help to ensure an expedited review and approval process," which she described as "simple and straightforward."

It is not yet clear whether Uber will apply for the permit or simply bring the self-driving cars to another state.

Another 20 companies exploring self-driving cars, including Alphabet's Google, Tesla Motors and Ford Motor Co, have obtained DMV permits for 130 test cars.

Uber began the self-driving car program in San Francisco on Dec. 14, when the vehicles could be hailed by clients, but it began testing the self-driving cars on San Francisco roadways more than a month ago.

Uber unveiled its self-driving cars in September in Pittsburgh. San Francisco was supposed to be its second testing ground.</s>A fleet of self-driving Uber cars left for Arizona on Thursday after they were banned from California roads over safety concerns.

The announcement came after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey took to social media Wednesday and Thursday touting Arizona as an alternative to California for the ride-hailing company to test out its self-driving cars.

 

 Ducey, a Republican, sent tweets advertising Arizona's friendly business environment, saying Uber should ditch California for the Grand Canyon state.

 

 Uber said in a statement that it had shipped its cars to Arizona and will be expanding its self-driving pilot program in the next few weeks. The company hasn't announced a date when the cars will be tested, nor did it provide details about how many cars were included. Uber previously had 16 self-driving cars registered in California.

 

 “Arizona welcomes Uber self-driving cars with open arms and wide open roads. While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new businesses,” Ducey said in a written statement.

 

 Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said the governor has been a strong supporter of driverless car technology and new business models, signing an executive order in August 2015 supporting the testing of such cars in Arizona.

 

 Uber faced immediate backlash after it launched its California testing in San Francisco last week.

 

 The California Department of Motor Vehicles had threatened legal action if Uber kept the cars on the road, saying they needed the same special permit as the 20 other companies testing self-driving technology in California.

 

 Uber said it doesn't need that permit because the cars are not sophisticated enough to continuously drive themselves. Still, the company promotes the cars as “self-driving.”

The ride-hailing company and state regulators negotiated for a week, but Uber pulled its cars off California roads Wednesday after state officials announced they would revoke the vehicle registrations of all 16 self-driving cars.

The DMV said the registrations for the vehicles were wrongly issued because they were not properly marked as test vehicles. It invited Uber to seek a permit so their vehicles could operate legally in California — an offer the company said it did not plan to accept.

Uber said on Wednesday it was looking for other places to test out the cars but remained 100 percent committed to California and would redouble its efforts “to develop workable statewide rules.”

Ducey called California's rules “over-regulation.” It's unclear which if any regulations exist in Arizona that would apply to the testing of self-driving cars. The executive order Ducey signed last year calls for the state's public safety and transportation departments to take steps toward allowing for the testing of self-driving cars.

 

 “This is about economic development, but it's also about changing the way we live and work. Arizona is proud to be open for business. California may not want you, but we do,” he said in a statement.</s>A pilot model of an Uber self-driving car goes down a street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (AFP /Angelo Merendino)

Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday removed its self-driving test cars from California and put them on trucks bound for Arizona, shuttering the autonomous vehicle project in its home state after a week-long battle with regulators.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday revoked the registration of 16 cars in Uber’s self-driving fleet, which the regulator said lacked the proper permits. Uber’s self-driving program had been up and running in San Francisco for just a week, and all the while the company was embroiled in a dispute with the state DMV and attorney general.

“Our cars departed for Arizona this morning by truck,” an Uber spokeswoman said in a written statement. “We’ll be expanding our self-driving pilot there in the next few weeks.”

San Francisco was to be Uber’s second testing ground for its self-driving cars after Pittsburgh, but the company immediately faced a backlash from the DMV, which requires a permit to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. Uber refused to apply for the permit, arguing that state regulations do not apply to its cars, which require constant monitoring and interference by someone in the car.

California defines autonomous vehicles as having the capability to drive “without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Thursday invited Uber to bring its cars to his state.

“Arizona welcomes Uber self-driving cars with open arms and wide open roads,” Ducey said in a statement released Thursday. “While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new businesses.”

Ducey signed an executive order in late August 2015 directing various agencies to “undertake any necessary steps to support the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles on public roads within Arizona.”

Both the California DMV and attorney general threatened legal action if Uber did not remove its self-driving cars from the road, which the company ultimately did on Wednesday.
Uber suspends tests of its self-driving cars in San Francisco, California, after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the registration of the vehicles in the state in response to two red-light violations.