Authorities in the state of California have revoked the registrations of Uber’s 16 self-driving vehicles, putting an end, at least for now, to Uber’s pilot initiative in San Francisco, one of the world’s hilliest cities.
Uber has been testing Volvo XC90 cars which drive by computer but have a human in the front who can intervene when needed.
The company stormed ahead last week with the experiment without having proper permits, which brought a host of legal threats from state officials.
Its defiance, however, was not rewarded with success. The vehicles proved equally defiant when it came to red lights and were caught running them.
One video showed an autonomous car failing to stop at a red light in the city just as a pedestrian was crossing the street. Eye witness accounts gave reports of similar events causing near collisions.
Uber initially placed the blame on “human error” and exonerated its self-driving technology, but the company later did admit there is a problem with bike lanes. More than 80,000 bike trips are estimated to take place every day in San Francisco.
Uber undertook its experiment without abiding by government regulations because it deemed the matter was an “important issue of principle about when companies can operate self-driving cars on the road”.
A number of the successful high tech companies can sometimes be seen to behave as if they have some higher authority than governments.
California had already approved 20 companies to test self-driving cars, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. A statement from the DMV said it could take less than 72 hours for Uber to get its permits after completing an application: “The department stands ready to assist Uber in obtaining a permit as expeditiously as possible.”
A number of voices have criticised Uber for not collaborating with regulators and jeopardising safety on the roads.
When it started the test last week it said it did not need self-driving permits because of the human monitors and because the cars have “state-of-the-art” technology and “core safety capabilities”.
Uber has often made its way by ignoring regulations but in this case seems to have reached a road block.
