California authorities officially banned Uber from testing unmanned vehicles

Uber has received an official ban from the California authorities to test their own unmanned passenger cars, reports Reuters and a number of major English-language publications.

Testing began last Wednesday and after a few hours, Uber management received a formal notice demanding to stop work under the threat of a lawsuit from the state administration. Negotiations that took place last week did not lead to anything. Now Uber will have to look for a new place for testing.

The ban came due to the fact that Uber, according to the authorities, did not properly register its test vehicles as autonomous vehicles. Representatives of Uber, for their part, argue that they do not need such registration, as their development cannot yet move independently without human participation throughout the route.
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At the same time, the laws of the state of California define autonomous vehicles as devices capable of “moving without active physical participation and monitoring by an individual”.

Uber’s disobedience was regarded negatively by the authorities and the company eventually received an official ban on testing under the threat of filing a lawsuit against the company. Authorities motivate their actions with a concern for the safety of other road users and pedestrians. With the correct registration of the autonomous vehicle registration, the developer company is obliged to submit information about any accidents involving the mobile vehicle. Apparently, Uber wanted to avoid this.

However, the company does not abandon its plans to test in California. "Now we are looking for a place where we can move our cars for testing, but we are 100% committed to working in California and will redouble our efforts to develop devices suitable for state rules," said Uber.

Previously, the company tested its Otto truck in Pittsburgh. Then an autonomous Volvo truck-based truck delivered in an automatic mode 50,000 cans of beer from the Budweiser plant from Pittsburgh to Colorado Springs. Developed by the eponymous startup Otto, which Uber acquired this summer.