Uber ignores Calif. threats, keeps testing self-driving cars

Uber on Monday said it’s continuing to test its 11 self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco, despite the threat of legal action from the California attorney general’s office if the company does not “immediately” remove its test vehicles from public roads.

The attorney general’s letter, sent late Friday, orders San Francisco-based Uber to apply for the appropriate permits from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles before continuing to test its cars. If the company does not, “the attorney general will seek injunctive and other appropriate relief ” to stop the testing, the letter said.

In the letter, the word “immediately” was italicized for emphasis.

In an email to USA TODAY Monday, Uber confirmed that its testing program in San Francisco was on-going.

Uber says its self-driving cars don’t require a DMV permit because the systems it is using are no different from current advanced driver-assistance systems that help with parking and collision avoidance, the same systems available in some cars today.

In a Friday-afternoon media call, Anthony Levandowski, who runs Uber’s autonomous car programs, said the permitting process doesn’t apply to the company and that “we cannot in good conscience” comply with a regulation that the company doesn’t believe applies to it. California doesn’t agree. California Vehicle Code Section 38750 requires the DMV to adopt regulations governing both the testing and public use of autonomous vehicles on California roadways.

Under the state’s definition, autonomous technology means “technology that has the capability to drive a vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring by a human operator.”

It explicitly excludes vehicles that are equipped with collision avoidance systems, such as electronic blind spot assistance, automated emergency braking systems, park assist, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, and traffic jam and queuing assist.

The DMV sent a cease-and-desist letter to Uber on Dec. 14 that said that under the California Vehicle Code, an autonomous vehicle must have a permit to ensure that “those testing the vehicle have provided an adequate level of financial responsibility, have adequately trained qualified test drivers on the safe operation of the autonomous technology; and will notify the DMV when the vehicles have been involved in a collision.”

The ride-hailing start-up, which has a long history of fighting with municipal authorities, says that the DMV’s definition of an autonomous vehicle doesn’t apply. Uber’s reasoning: It’s not building a vehicle that has no steering wheel, pedals or human driver, but rather, is creating a technology to give a “significant level” of driver assistance while still requiring driver oversight, Levandowski said.

“(We) cannot in good conscience” comply with a regulation that the company doesn’t believe applies to it. Anthony Levandowski, Uber