After Uber openly and strongly defied local authorities of San Francisco asking them to stop ilegal operations of their self-drving cars, the California DMV forcefully shut down the trials by revoking all 16 self-driving cars' registrations.
According to TechCrunch, Uber confirmed that it will stop the self-driving test run in San Francisco after a meeting with the California DMV and Attorney General's office. TechCrunch mentions that the DMV asked Uber to finish acquiring permits for the trial at the same time the registrations were revoked.
SFGate, reports that the reason why the California DMV revoked Uber's license is because the cars were not properly marked as "test vehicles." For now, Uber plans to relocate their self-driving car trials elsewhere for the time being, but mentions that they remain fully committed to California.
Uber began the San Fransisco trials on December 14 despite calls by local authorities to acquire a special permit to operate the self-driving cars first. Days after the trials began, Uber's self-driving cars have been caught beating traffic lights and turning over bike lanes, putting cyclists and pedestrians in danger.
BREAKING: Uber pulls self-driving cars off California roads, says state revoked registrations.
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 22, 2016
Uber initially claimed that their self-driving cars do not qualify for the special autonomous vehicle permit authorities are asking them to acquire since the cars do not operate fully autonomous. The self driving cars have a licensed driver behind the wheel to operate the car manually when needed, as well as an Uber engineer to oversee the test.
16 Volvo X90s were fitted with Uber's autonomous vehicle system, and were put into live trials on the street of San Francisco to pick up random UberX passengers. Uber's Self-driving system was developed by engineers the company acquired from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh early this year. Uber is also running a self-driving car trial in Pittsburgh, which the state welcomed openly.
