Uber stops self-driving cars in San Francisco after dispute with authorities

Uber stops offering rides in 16 self-driving cars in San Francisco. Authorities say the self-driving cars need a permit, Uber said earlier that such a permit is not necessary.

Uber is now going to try to use the sixteen cars in a different way, CNN writes, among others, based on a statement from the taxi company. The San Francisco road access authority had said that Uber, like other companies working on self-driving cars, needed a permit to use the autonomous vehicles on the road. Uber claimed last week that it thought a permit was not necessary, because the cars are driving with a co-driver who can intervene at any time.

It is believed that Uber has now pulled the plug on the project after the Department for Motor Vehicles threatened legal action. While DMV raised objections based on the lack of a permit, the Uber cars also faced other issues. Cyclists have complained that the self-driving car software did not take them sufficiently into account, while a video recently appeared in which an Uber car in San Francisco ignored a red traffic light.

San Francisco is the second city where Uber offers self-driving cars. The first was Pittsburgh, also in the United States. Offering self-driving taxis requires a different way of mapping cities in addition to permits, making it time-consuming to quickly provide the service in many cities where the taxi service is already active.