SAN FRANCISCO: Uber’s self-driving cars are hitting the roads once again in San Francisco, following a weekend crash in Tempe, Ariz. that grounded test cars in Pittsburgh and Arizona.
“We are resuming our development operations in San Francisco this morning,” an Uber spokesperson confirmed to media. Self-driving cars remain grounded in Arizona and Pittsburgh, but the company expects them to be driving again soon. Tempe police confirmed to media the self-driving Uber vehicle involved in the rollover accident on Saturday was not at fault, and there were no life-threatening injuries.
In December, Uber stopped testing its self-driving car in San Francisco after California regulators revoked the vehicles’ registrations. The company had skirted regulations by not applying for permits, and after it ignored warnings from the DMV, regulators halted its program. Uber then moved its testing to Arizona, which has no special regulations for autonomous vehicles.
A spokeswoman for the California DMV confirmed Uber obtained a permit to test its autonomous vehicles on March 8. That permit covers two vehicles and 48 drivers, and each additional car and driver will need to be approved individually. Waymo, Google’s autonomous car division, recently filed a lawsuit against Uber-owned Otto for stealing trade secrets and intellectual property.
The accident and reinstatement of autonomous cars in San Francisco comes at an increasingly tumultuous time for the company, which includes customer boycotts. Uber is currently investigating claims of sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace, and CEO Travis Kalanick recently said the company plans to hire a COO.
