Techcrunch:
Uber will be rolling out its third-generation self-driving test vehicles, which are sensor-lated Volvo XC90 SUVs, in Arizona following their loss of registration in California. An Uber spokesperson tells TechCrunch that the cars actually left for Arizona by truck on Tuesday morning, and that they will be deployed there “in the next few weeks” with the full support of state Governor Doug Ducey.
Uber met with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California state Attorney General’s office on Wednesday, after refusing to pursue a permit for testing autonomous driving in the state and continuing its San Francisco city pilot anyway. The result of the meeting was that the DMV revoked registration for 16 of Uber’s vehicles, the test fleet it had deployed with autonomous hardware and software in SF.
This is unlikely to hurt Uber in the long run but the arrogance on display in California certainly won’t endear them to governments of the state.
I’m sure lots of folks in AZ would relish sticking it to CA by making this a success.
Yeah, Uber might want to fix that whole “running through lights” problem if they’re moving the pilot here. We have more traffic enforcement cameras than we have people in some areas.
If you are that enthusiastic, you should lobby Uber to test these cars in your neighborhood, and in the neighborhood where your kids go to school and where your wife works.
I live in San Francisco, so I actually know what people in Arizona will be thinking about these Uber test cars, and I don’t think they will all be corporate cheerleaders. I think it is more likely that there are people in AZ cleaning their guns right now. I hope the guy who sits in the Uber waiting to take the blame for programming errors in the car has really good medical and really good life insurance. If you hit a kid with your car, people find that hard to forgive. But if it turns out you did not even have your hands on the wheel?
San Francisco is only 10×10 kilometers, and almost all roads that are 50+ or more years old and very well mapped, and only 700,000 people. And yet we have multiple videos of these Uber cars not being able to handle a red light! Good luck AZ people.
The issue is if there is a fatal accident. That would take down the governor and cost Uber millions. If it happened with a company that was willing to engage in oversight rather than venue shopping, the PR problem would be significantly less. I suspect most of the self-driving car companies are livid because any mistakes by Uber will affect them too.
Way to go, boys! Let’s find every conceivable way this thing could go wrong!
This is most likely how “horseless carriages” were received 150 years ago. How dare them damned contraptions scare my horses! How sad for all the buggy whip makers going out of business!
How about giving credit where it’s due to the California liberal snowflake idiots for driving business out of their state?
AZ state government will likely welcome Uber with open arms. After a sufficiently generous set of campaign contributions, of course.
Has Uber given any indication for why they refused to just get the required permits? I know they gave the “but they are not really autonomous” but that’s that was transparent bullshit.
Part of the requirements for the required permit was incident reporting. The belief is that Uber didn’t want to share this sort of reliability reporting publicly. What’s funny is they claim that it’s no different than Tesla’s autopilot, but Tesla has the license.
Yes, accident reporting and a $150 license is such an onerous requirement. Compared to the requirements for early automobiles (flaggers and the like), the requirements for autonomous vehicles in California are anarchic.
Try making your point without stereotyping AZ folks as shoot-first, think-later hillbillies.
Might want to do some fact checking. The DMV was right. Why should Uber be given a pass on getting a permit to do this when everyone else is required to have them, it’s not hard to get, and the DMV has stated they’ll be glad to help them get a permit.
This is an end-run around requirements to report accidents caused by their cars, avoid having the “engineers” inside these cars designated employees, and who knows what else from this arrogant, sociopathic company that does everything it can to defy regulation in every form.
The best thing that could happen is for them to go out of business. The second-best thing would be for them to follow the law, like the rest of us must.
I was going to say look who they voted to be governor, but then thought that would be an ironic statement.
That makes sense. I wish Uber was a company I could give the benefit of the doubt to, but they have burned through that goodwill.
Uber’s entire business model is based on ignoring state and local regulations (enacted by elected officials and their duly appointed organizations) and daring governments to take them to court and/or arrest Uber co-perpetrators. If they were to acknowledge California DMV’s right to regulate, uh, motor vehicles, they might have to acknowledge the LA Taxi Commission for a start. Can’t have that; break laws now; dismissively demand forgiveness later.
What exactly did you think I was enthusiastic about?
Indeed. User’s calculation is clearly that no consumer or regulatory goodwill is necessary and that they can succeed through brute force. Perhaps they are correct.