SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Uber pulled its self-driving cars from California roads after state regulators moved to revoke their registrations, officials said Wednesday.
The move comes after a week of talks between the ride-sharing company and state regulators failed.
Hours after Uber launched the service in its hometown of San Francisco last Wednesday, the DMV threatened legal action if the company did not stop. The cars need the same special permit as the 20 other companies testing self-driving technology in California, regulators argued.
Uber maintains it does not need a permit because the cars are not sophisticated enough to continuously drive themselves, although the company promotes them as “self-driving.”
The DMV said the registrations for the vehicles were improperly issued because they were not properly marked as test vehicles. It invited Uber to seek a permit so their vehicles could operate legally in California – an offer the company said it did not plan to accept.