By TOM KRISHER | The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Uber has decided to stop testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by letting its state permit expire on Saturday without renewing it.

If the ride-hailing service wants to return to the state, it will have to get a new permit and address any investigations into a crash involving one of its autonomous test SUVs in Arizona that killed a pedestrian, the California DMV said in a letter sent to the company on Tuesday.

“Any application for a new permit will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department,” said the letter from DMV Deputy Director Brian Soublet.

California is the second state in which Uber won’t be able to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges due to the crash.

On the night of March 18 an Uber autonomous Volvo SUV struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was walking a bicycle across a darkened boulevard in Tempe, near Phoenix. Experts have told The Associated Press that the SUV’s laser and radar sensors should have spotted Herzberg, and the vehicle should have stopped. In addition, the SUV’s human backup driver appeared to be looking down before the crash and had a stunned look when it happened, according to dash camera video released by police.

 Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as California, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The company said in a statement that it decided not to reapply for the California permit “with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future.”

California is a relatively small testing ground for Uber with 29 vehicles permitted for testing. The company has about 200 vehicles at all four testing locations.

Uber is still allowed to test on public roads in Pennsylvania and Ontario. Pennsylvania said in a statement that it will work with Uber to “ensure any restart of testing is done with safety as the top priority.” Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation said it is watching developments in Arizona and will consider appropriate measure when more is known.

The Uber crash is being investigated by Tempe police, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It has caused angst across the tech and auto businesses, with companies such as Toyota and NVIDIA suspending their autonomous vehicle tests on public roads. NVIDIA’s fleet is small in California.

John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, formerly Google’s self-driving car unit, has expressed confidence in his company’s system and its ability to interact with pedestrians.

Mobileye, an Israeli unit of Intel that makes software brains that interpret what sensors are seeing, has called for the industry to discuss a framework to validate the safety of autonomous vehicles. </s> Uber halts testing of self-driving cars on San Francisco roads after registration revoked

Ride share company Uber has stopped testing self-driving cars in San Francisco after its registration was revoked.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it took action against the company because the 16 self-driving cars had not been properly permitted.

For the last week, the agency has been demanding that Uber shut down its program and comply with regulations requiring a permit to test self-driving cars on public roads.

Uber said it was not obligated to have a permit because its vehicles require continuous monitoring by a person in the car.

San Francisco was supposed to be Uber's second testing ground for its self-driving cars, after the company unveiled the program in Pittsburgh in September.

"We're now looking at where we can redeploy these cars but remain 100 per cent committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules," an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement.

California defines autonomous vehicles as having the capability to drive "without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person".

Uber has argued that the law does not apply to its cars, which cannot stay in autonomous mode continuously.

A driver and an engineer are in the front seats to take over frequently in sticky traffic situations such as construction zones or pedestrian crossings.

Uber's defiance was met with threats of legal action from the DMV and the state attorney-general.

Uber permit would take less than three days to process: DMV

The DMV told Uber that if it had obtained a permit, the regulator would have given the green light to the self-driving pilot.

DMV director Jean Shiomoto said in a letter sent to Uber that she would "personally help to ensure an expedited review and approval process", which she said could take less than three days.

The permit process is largely seen as a public safety measure, as regulations also require that companies provide the DMV with accident reports.

Uber, however, has complained that its home state has favoured complex rules over technological innovation.

It is not yet clear whether Uber will apply for the permit or simply bring the self-driving cars to another state.

Another 20 companies exploring self-driving cars — including Alphabet's Google, Tesla Motors and Ford Motor Co — have obtained California DMV permits for 130 cars.

Uber opened up the self-driving car program to San Francisco passengers on December 14, but has been testing the cars on city roadways for more than a month. </s> DETROIT (AP) – Uber has decided to stop testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by letting its state permit expire on Saturday without renewing it.

If the ride-hailing service wants to return to the state, it will have to get a new permit and address any investigations into a crash involving one of its autonomous test SUVs in Arizona that killed a pedestrian, the California DMV said in a letter sent to the company on Tuesday.

“Any application for a new permit will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department,” said the letter from DMV Deputy Director Brian Soublet.

California is the second state in which Uber won’t be able to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges due to the crash.

On the night of March 18 an Uber autonomous Volvo SUV struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was walking a bicycle across a darkened boulevard in Tempe, near Phoenix. Experts have told The Associated Press that the SUV’s laser and radar sensors should have spotted Herzberg, and the vehicle should have stopped. In addition, the SUV’s human backup driver appeared to be looking down before the crash and had a stunned look when it happened, according to dash camera video released by police.

Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as California, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The company said in a statement that it decided not to reapply for the California permit “with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future.”

California is a relatively small testing ground for Uber with 29 vehicles permitted for testing. The company has about 200 vehicles at all four testing locations.

Uber is still allowed to test on public roads in Pennsylvania and Ontario. Pennsylvania said in a statement that it will work with Uber to “ensure any restart of testing is done with safety as the top priority.” Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation said it is watching developments in Arizona and will consider appropriate measure when more is known.

The Uber crash is being investigated by Tempe police, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It has caused angst across the tech and auto businesses, with companies such as Toyota and NVIDIA suspending their autonomous vehicle tests on public roads. NVIDIA’s fleet is small in California.

John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, which is Google’s self-driving car unit, has expressed confidence in his company’s system and its ability to interact with pedestrians.

Mobileye, an Israeli unit of Intel that makes software brains that interpret what sensors are seeing, has called for the industry to discuss a framework to validate the safety of autonomous vehicles. </s> Image copyright Volvo Image caption Uber had started to pick up passengers in specially-modified Volvo self-driving cars

Ride-sharing firm Uber has suspended its test of self-driving cars in San Francisco after regulators revoked the registration of the vehicles.

Passengers had recently been given the option of a booking a self-driving vehicle.

But authorities had threatened legal action if Uber did not obtain a special permit to test the cars.

Uber argues that because they came with a safety driver and are not fully autonomous, the permit was not needed.

"We're now looking at where we can redeploy these cars, but remain 100% committed to California and will be redoubling our efforts to develop workable statewide rules," Uber said.

San Francisco is Uber's second trial city for the new technology. In Pittsburgh, the company has been running its driverless trial since September and has not required special permits.

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Not yet fully autonomous

Although the cars are promoted as "self-driving", they must constantly be monitored by an actual driver who can take control any time the software should fail.

Uber says its technology is not sophisticated enough to have cars continuously drive by themselves - and therefore the permit demanded in San Francisco is not needed.

Image copyright Uber Image caption Uber began using Ford cars to test its self-driving technologies in Pittsburgh earlier this year

But regulators say that 20 other companies testing self-driving technology in California - including Google, Tesla and Ford - do so with the special permit which requires the firms to report any accidents to the authorities. This potentially undermines the company's reputation, as the reports are available to the public.

Just before the city's Department of Motor Vehicles threatened Uber with legal action over the missing permit, a video of an Uber self-driving vehicle running a red light in San Francisco had been uploaded to YouTube.

The trials are designed for the firm to identify flaws and glitches in the technology behind the autonomous driving. </s> California stopped Uber’s self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco. California DMV has revoked the registrations of the vehicles Uber had been using after the failure of a week of talks between the state and the ride-hailing company. </s> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc. [UBER.UL] has removed its self-driving cars from San Francisco streets after California regulators cracked down on the program because the company had not obtained a permit to test autonomous vehicles.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Wednesday it revoked the registration of 16 Uber self-driving cars after a weeklong battle with the ride-services company. The regulator had demanded that Uber obtain a permit to test its self-driving cars on public roads - just as 20 other companies, including Tesla and Ford, have done -- but Uber said it wasn't obligated to do so.

"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," a spokeswoman said in a statement. </s> (PHOENIX) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges Monday in the wake of a pedestrian fatality in a Phoenix suburb last week.

Ducey told the company CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage of the crash raised concerns about the company’s ability to safely test its technology in Arizona. He said he expects public safety to be the top priority for those who operate self-driving cars.

“The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation,” Ducey said.

The move by the Republican governor marks a major step back from his embrace of self-driving vehicles. He previously welcomed Uber and other autonomous vehicle companies to use Arizona as a place for testing under few, if any, regulations. In early March, he authorized self-driving vehicle companies to run tests without a person in the car to act as a safety operator.

Police in Tempe released a 22-second video showing a woman walking from a darkened area onto a street just before an Uber SUV strikes her. The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, police said.

Uber’s human backup driver appears on the video to be looking down before crash and appears startled about the time of the impact.

Experts who viewed the video told The Associated Press that the SUV’s sensors should have seen the woman pushing a bicycle and braked before the impact.

The fatal crash in Tempe was the first fatality involving a self-driving vehicle in the United States.

Uber immediately suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the company’s own documents showed the testing program was rife with issues. They included trouble driving through construction zones and requiring far more human intervention than competing companies.

In Arizona, companies such as Uber only need to carry minimum liability insurance to operate self-driving cars. They are not required to track crashes or report any information to the state.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment. </s> Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber's self-driving vehicle testing privileges Monday in the wake of a pedestrian fatality in a Phoenix suburb last week.

Ducey told the company CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage of the crash raised concerns about the company's ability to safely test its technology in Arizona. He said he expects public safety to be the top priority for those who operate self-driving cars.

"The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation," Ducey said.

The move by the Republican governor marks a major step back from his embrace of self-driving vehicles. He previously welcomed Uber and other autonomous vehicle companies to use Arizona as a place for testing under few, if any, regulations. In early March, he authorized self-driving vehicle companies to run tests without a person in the car to act as a safety operator.

Police in Tempe released a 22-second video showing a woman walking from a darkened area onto a street just before an Uber SUV strikes her. The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, police said.

Uber's human backup driver appears on the video to be looking down before crash and appears startled about the time of the impact.

Experts who viewed the video told The Associated Press that the SUV's sensors should have seen the woman pushing a bicycle and braked before the impact.

The fatal crash in Tempe was the first fatality involving a self-driving vehicle in the United States.

Uber immediately suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the company's own documents showed the testing program was rife with issues. They included trouble driving through construction zones and requiring far more human intervention than competing companies.

In Arizona, companies such as Uber only need to carry minimum liability insurance to operate self-driving cars. They are not required to track crashes or report any information to the state.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment. </s> A fleet of self-driving Uber cars left for Arizona on Thursday after they were banned from California roads over safety concerns.

The announcement came after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey took to social media Wednesday and Thursday touting Arizona as an alternative to California for the ride-hailing company to test out its self-driving cars.

 

 Ducey, a Republican, sent tweets advertising Arizona's friendly business environment, saying Uber should ditch California for the Grand Canyon state.

 

 Uber said in a statement that it had shipped its cars to Arizona and will be expanding its self-driving pilot program in the next few weeks. The company hasn't announced a date when the cars will be tested, nor did it provide details about how many cars were included. Uber previously had 16 self-driving cars registered in California.

 

 “Arizona welcomes Uber self-driving cars with open arms and wide open roads. While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new businesses,” Ducey said in a written statement.

 

 Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said the governor has been a strong supporter of driverless car technology and new business models, signing an executive order in August 2015 supporting the testing of such cars in Arizona.

 

 Uber faced immediate backlash after it launched its California testing in San Francisco last week.

 

 The California Department of Motor Vehicles had threatened legal action if Uber kept the cars on the road, saying they needed the same special permit as the 20 other companies testing self-driving technology in California.

 

 Uber said it doesn't need that permit because the cars are not sophisticated enough to continuously drive themselves. Still, the company promotes the cars as “self-driving.”

The ride-hailing company and state regulators negotiated for a week, but Uber pulled its cars off California roads Wednesday after state officials announced they would revoke the vehicle registrations of all 16 self-driving cars.

The DMV said the registrations for the vehicles were wrongly issued because they were not properly marked as test vehicles. It invited Uber to seek a permit so their vehicles could operate legally in California — an offer the company said it did not plan to accept.

Uber said on Wednesday it was looking for other places to test out the cars but remained 100 percent committed to California and would redouble its efforts “to develop workable statewide rules.”

Ducey called California's rules “over-regulation.” It's unclear which if any regulations exist in Arizona that would apply to the testing of self-driving cars. The executive order Ducey signed last year calls for the state's public safety and transportation departments to take steps toward allowing for the testing of self-driving cars.

 

 “This is about economic development, but it's also about changing the way we live and work. Arizona is proud to be open for business. California may not want you, but we do,” he said in a statement.
Uber suspends tests of its self-driving cars in San Francisco, California, after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the registration of the vehicles in the state in response to two red-light violations.