Uber asked to halt self-driving vehicle service in San Francisco

Uber may have announced the launch of its self-driving vehicles in San Francisco but the cab aggregator has now been ordered by state regulators to stop the pilot, according to the Associated Press on the grounds of not securing a necessary permit for the same issued by the state.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a statement 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.”

The self-driving pilot program in San Francisco is an expansion of Uber’s original launch of the service in Pittsburgh earlier this year.

According to Uber they didn’t need any permits. “We understand that there is a debate over whether or not we need a testing permit to launch self-driving Ubers in San Francisco,” explained Anthony Levandowski, head of the advanced technology group at Uber, in a blog post.

“We have looked at this issue carefully, and we don’t believe we do. Before you roll your eyes and 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,” Levandowski added.

Prior to the state regulators explicitly ordering Uber to stop, Uber’s vehicle was caught on camera apparently running a red light, thought the circumstances of this incident aren’t known at this time.

The DMV has clearly stated in its letter that Uber will face “legal action, including but not limited to, seeking injunctive relief” if it does not comply.

Well, this isn’t the first time, Uber is breaking norms to suit itself but DMV looks tough and only time will tell how they find the middle ground.