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.
