Photo: Volvo
Following the fatal pedestrian crash of last week, the governor of Arizona suspended Uber’s ability to test self-driving cars on the state’s roads. A few days later, Uber reportedly is giving up on the idea in California as well.
According to documents submitted to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, cited by The Verge, Uber will not renew its permit to operate such cars in the Sunny State. The current permit is said to expire on the last day of March.
"We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident,” an Uber official told the source.
“Given this, we decided to not reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future.”
The reason behind Uber giving up on renewing the permit is the fact that if it does, it would have to explain to local authorities how and why the Arizona incident happened.
The crash which left one woman dead in Tempe, Arizona last week, might have far-reaching consequences for self-driving cars, despite the investigation being still ongoing and the authorities apparently not holding Uber responsible for the outcome of the crash.
According to Reuters, the company has decided to settle an yet unopened legal dispute with the family of the Arizona victim. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed.
In-car video released by the police a few days ago shows how the 49-year old victim appear out of nowhere in the middle of the road, pushing a bicycle. The car and the human onboard make no attempt to avoid contact.
As a result of the incident, Uber suspended self-driving operations in all locations and had not resumed them yet. It is obvious that in some places it will not resume them at all, at least for a while.
"We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident,” an Uber official told the source.
“Given this, we decided to not reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future.”
The reason behind Uber giving up on renewing the permit is the fact that if it does, it would have to explain to local authorities how and why the Arizona incident happened.
The crash which left one woman dead in Tempe, Arizona last week, might have far-reaching consequences for self-driving cars, despite the investigation being still ongoing and the authorities apparently not holding Uber responsible for the outcome of the crash.
According to Reuters, the company has decided to settle an yet unopened legal dispute with the family of the Arizona victim. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed.
In-car video released by the police a few days ago shows how the 49-year old victim appear out of nowhere in the middle of the road, pushing a bicycle. The car and the human onboard make no attempt to avoid contact.
As a result of the incident, Uber suspended self-driving operations in all locations and had not resumed them yet. It is obvious that in some places it will not resume them at all, at least for a while.
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