Ride-share giant Uber has decided to concede to the California DMV and apply for a permit to conduct its self-driving tests on public roads in San Francisco.
In December 2016 Uber sparked outrage by conducting these tests without a permit – claiming that the regulations surrounding self-driving cars apply to its vehicles.
“You don’t need to wear a belt and suspenders and whatever else, things that don’t apply, if you’re wearing a dress,” Antony Levandowski, VP of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group told TheVerge.com.
“If you’re driving a car, you don’t need a fish and game permit.”
But according to a recent company statement, they have changed their position;
“These cars are legally registered and are being driven manually. We are taking steps to complete our application to apply for a DMV testing permit. As we said in December, Uber remains 100 percent committed to California”.
The latest fleet of vehicles in San Francisco are manually operated and being used to map out the city for improvements to local maps for autonomous driving and other navigation purposes.
Uber is yet to officially submit an application for a permit.
