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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.
With the reported problems their self driving car had im ammazed it was allowed off a test track. Barely averaging 13 miles before needing human intervention is piss poor, and not functioning properly while next to a large object (like a transport).
Yeah. Definitely should not have been off a test track.
I smell a (public relations/marketing) rat. Uber has sunk serious cash into self-driving vehicles, with a vision of a future where there are no drivers and no vehicle ownership. The public at large will simple dial up (automated) transport services from their mobile - transport services Uber will provide. I can't imagine one (admittedly tragic) setback is all it takes to cause them to abandon it.
They are (disingenuously, I suspect) attempting to appear humane, cautious, and considerate... to mitigate the "we stomp on laws! we stomp on people! we harass! progress at any cost!" image that they have. When the dust settles, they'll - at best - issue a "we're super duper happy we took this pause to focus on safety blah blah".
Writing applications that impact public safety (as someone else pointed out, Therac anyone?) is an entirely different ballgame than "app development". Anyone rationally believe that Uber has the governance, structure, and discipline in place to create self-driving systems? What about airplane critical systems? Radiology?
Transportation is no joke. Realtime systems are not 'just another kind of app'. It's a very different approach, discipline, and willingness to follow a particular governance, a particular path. Nothing I've read about Uber, nothing they've ever said publicly, and nothing the three engineers I've known to work for them indicates that they - at all - acknowledge that. They believe they're somehow super-special, somehow smarter than the thousands of people who've come before them, working on critical systems, who utilized such safeguards and discipline.
NopeNopeNope.