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Uber Will Not Re-Apply For Self-Driving Car Permit In California (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Uber, after suspending its self-driving car operations in all markets following a fatal crash, has decided not to re-apply for its self-driving car permit in California. Uber's current permit in California expires March 31. "We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident," an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. "Given this, we decided to not reapply for a California permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future."
Uber's decision not to reapply comes in tandem with a letter the DMV sent to Uber's head of public affairs, Austin Heyworth, today. The letter pertains to the fatal self-driving car crash that happened in Tempe, Arizona last week. "In addition to this decision to suspend testing throughout the country, Uber has indicated that it will not renew its current permit to test autonomous vehicles in California," DMV Deputy Director/Chief Counsel Brian Soublet wrote in the letter. "By the terms of its current permit, Uber's authority to test autonomous vehicles on California public roads will end on March 31, 2018." This comes following Arizona's decision to block Uber's self-driving cars in its city.
Uber's decision not to reapply comes in tandem with a letter the DMV sent to Uber's head of public affairs, Austin Heyworth, today. The letter pertains to the fatal self-driving car crash that happened in Tempe, Arizona last week. "In addition to this decision to suspend testing throughout the country, Uber has indicated that it will not renew its current permit to test autonomous vehicles in California," DMV Deputy Director/Chief Counsel Brian Soublet wrote in the letter. "By the terms of its current permit, Uber's authority to test autonomous vehicles on California public roads will end on March 31, 2018." This comes following Arizona's decision to block Uber's self-driving cars in its city.
Can I have some citation on this. It isn't that I don't believe you, I just hadn't heard that particular statistic before and would like to understand the details on such information.
The statistic is from a NYT article (there was a Slashdot story about it a few days ago), that is, from leaked internal Uber company data obtained by the NYT.
Also, not all self-driving cars are the same. Google's tend to have a good safety record thus far, Uber seems to try and piggy back on this (like they tried to "piggy back" on Google's technology, too...) to assure everyone that testing self-driving cars is safe, while refusing to release their own testing data. The information obtained by the NYT suggests the performance of the Uber cars is terrible in comparison to Google.
Uber deserves no trust and no benefit of the doubt, I mean they were kicked out of California because they didn't apply for a $150 licence for autonomous car testing. If they can't be bothered to fill out some paperwork, I wonder where else they are cutting corners.