Uber Approved to Restart Autonomous Vehicle Testing in California

Uber received approval from California officials to restart testing the company’s self-driving vehicles.

According to BBC.com, Uber Technologies Inc. was issued a permit by the California Department of Motor Vehicles that will once again allow the company to conduct tests on its autonomous fleet of cars, as long as they have a backup driver.

The decision comes nearly two years after one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, putting the project on hold until further research could be done to avoid similar accidents.
Uber Advanced Technologies, the company’s self-driving unit, said it “does not have immediate plans to engage in autonomous driving in the state,” and officials would notify regulatory stakeholders when the plans were developed and released.

The death in Arizona caused by the autonomous vehicle has forced Uber to take a more conservative approach to self-driving vehicles, but California officials felt the company did enough to prove it deserved another chance.

In December, Uber revealed a safety report that indicated the company received 3,045 reports of sexual assault during rides in the United States in 2018.

The cases included 235 reported incidents of rape, an increase from 229 the previous year, while instances of attempted rape decreased from 307 reports in 2017 to 280 in 2018.