In a Tuesday letter to Uber, the California Department of Motor Vehicles formally acknowledged that Uber will not seek to renew its autonomous vehicle permit in the state, which is due to expire at the end of March 2018.
In addition, the brief letter notes that Uber has also "indefinitely suspended" such testing in Pennsylvania—the home of its Pittsburgh research center—and in Arizona and Toronto. Uber had been ordered by Gov. Doug Ducey to halt testing in Arizona, the site of its recent tragic accident that killed a woman in Tempe.
"Prior to resuming autonomous vehicle testing operations in California, Uber must apply for a new autonomous vehicle testing permit," Brian Soublet, deputy general counsel for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, wrote in the letter, which was provided to Ars. "Any application for a new permit will need to address any follow-up analysis or investigations from the recent crash in Arizona and may also require a meeting with the department."
Uber spokeswoman Sarah Abboud sent Ars a brief statement in which the company said it "proactively suspended" its "self-driving operations."
"Given this, we decided to not reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future," the statement concluded.
She clarified: "We are not operating our vehicles anywhere at this time."
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that while he "didn't know all the specifics," the video from the Tempe crash "did look like both the tech and the driver could have or should have prevented that."
Reuters also reported that Nvidia is also suspending its self-driving testing in the aftermath of the Arizona accident.
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Ars Technica
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