Uber's self-driving car program won't be renewed in California
Uber's self-driving car program seems doomed -- at least in two states where it was testing its driverless technology.
Following last week's fatal crash in the Phoenix area, the company suspended all its programs in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Arizona. This week, any future autonomous testing in Arizona was suspended indefinitely.
Now, a letter from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to Uber's autonomous vehicle program shows that the company has decided not to renew its testing permit. Its current permit will expire this weekend on March 31.
The letter, as seen below, says Uber was talking to the regulatory agency last week about the crash. Now if Uber decides to go ahead with testing in the state, it "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."
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
An Uber spokesperson confirmed that its California days are over -- for now. "We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident. 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."
Uber's decision comes as self-driving car companies can apply for permits to test truly driverless vehicles in California.
Topics Self-Driving Cars Uber
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
