Uber gets California permit to restart self-driving car tests

A familiar name is back on the approved list for testing autonomous cars in California. 

The California Department of Motor Vehicles added Uber Advanced Technologies Group Wednesday morning as the latest company allowed to test self-driving vehicles on public roads with a driver behind the wheel.

But just because Uber is permitted to test in its home state, that doesn’t mean it’s jumping back into the fray. The company let its CA permit expire at the end of March 2018, just weeks after one of its self-driving vehicles fatally struck a woman in Arizona.

Uber had been testing its cars on San Francisco streets since the end of 2016. When the program started there, the company was very different with co-founder Travis Kalanick still at the helm.

But since 49-year-old pedestrian Elaine Herzberg was killed, Uber has slowly re-emerged on the self-driving scene. That said, it’s still suspended from testing in Arizona. 

In a statement Wednesday, a spokesperson said, “San Francisco is a great city to gather key learnings for self-driving technology given its complex and ever-changing environment. While we do not have an update as to exactly when we’ll resume autonomous testing, receiving our testing permit through the California DMV is a critical step towards that end in Uber’s home city.” 

Uber plans to check in with more regulators before getting back to it. In other cities, like Pittsburgh and Dallas, self-driving Ubers are only operating in manual mode. 

This time around, Uber’s in no rush to go autonomous.