Car sharing service Uber has been ordered to halt use of its autonomous cars, which have recently begun testing in certain parts of California. The cease and desist came from none other than state regulators, saying that they require the necessary permits before doing so.
According to the Associated Press, the Department of Motor Vehicles issued a statement expecting Uber to secure said permit, but the car sharing service maintains that because their test vehicles are not fully autonomous, they do not need one.
Previously, Uber had also been conducting self driving trials using a fleet of specially modified Volvo XC90s in the city of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania earlier this year, so this is only new to California, where days prior to this move by the state regulators, a self-driven XC90 was alleged to have been caught on camera running a red light.
The expansion of Uber’s self driving programme to California was much publicised, and the fact that there hasn’t been a good enough channel of communication with the state to allow these trials do not paint an them or their programme in a favourable light.
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