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from the doesn't-anybody-drive-themself-anymore dept.
Uber, the master of routing around regulations and exploiting legal loopholes, has found a rather big hole undermining a letter recently sent by the California Department of Motor Vehicles demanding that the company obtain a permit to test "self-driving cars" in San Francisco. Uber is arguing that the cars it plans to use in San Francisco are not truly autonomous and thus don't require a permit to operate:
Uber's position is that the semi-autonomous car system it is testing here is really no different from current advanced driver assistance systems available now for owners of Teslas and other cars that help with parking and collision avoidance. In that light, Uber doesn't believe it needs a permit because what it's working on doesn't meet the DMV requirements for a truly autonomous vehicle, which would be one that drives without the active, physical control or monitoring of a human being.
The permitting process "doesn't apply to us" because "you don't need to get belts and suspenders or whatever else if you're wearing a dress," Anthony Levandowski, who runs Uber's autonomous car programs, said in a press call Friday afternoon. "We cannot in good conscience" comply with a regulation that the company doesn't believe applies to it, he said.
The DMV cease-and-desist letter said that under the California Vehicle Code, an autonomous vehicle must have a permit to ensure that "those testing the vehicle have provided an adequate level of financial responsibility, have adequately trained qualified test drivers on the safe operation of the autonomous technology; and will notify the DMV when the vehicles have been involved in a collision." If Uber does not confirm immediately that it will stop its launch and seek a testing permit, DMV will initiate legal action, DMV attorney Brian Soublet wrote in a letter addressed to Levandowski.
The Uber "self-driving cars" will have not one, but two people at the front capable of taking control of the car.
Previously: Uber to Begin Picking Up Passengers With Autonomous Cars Next Month
Former Uber Employee Claims Widespread Privacy Problems
Uber's Self-Driving Cars to be Tested in San Francisco
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @12:23AM
Or you could choose to read the comment in the context of the headline.
Have the passenger of the self driving car ride in the drivers seat of the self driving car, then you can claim the passenger of the self driving car is actually the driver of the self driving car. Require the passenger of the self driving car to have a drivers license, then you can deny service to undesirable bums who would otherwise want a ride in a self driving car because they cannot drive themselves. Classify the self driving vehicle as a rental car instead of a taxi, then Uber wins at self driving cars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @01:52AM
Or you could read the comments in the context that I am batshit because I forgot to take my meds this week.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @10:13AM
Or you could read the self-driving comments in the self-driving context that I am batshit because I forgot to take my self-driving meds this self-driving week.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @12:22PM
Yo dawg, I heard yo like self-driving comments so we put a self-driving context in yo self-driving comment so yo can self-drive while yo self-drive.