Uber does not plan to pull its fleet of self-driving Volvos from the streets of San Francisco, despite claims from the state and local governments that the service is operating illegally.
The company argued Friday afternoon that since human drivers are present in its autonomous vehicles at all times, they don't require a special permit from the state's dpetartment of motor vehicles.
"It's hard to understand why the DMV would seek to require self-driving Ubers to get permits when it accepts that Tesla's autopilot technology does not need them," Uber's head of advanced technology Anthony Levandowski said in a statement. "We asked for clarification as to specifically what is different about our tech from the DMV, but have not received it."
As The Verge notes, however, Tesla and nearly two dozen other car and technology companies have obtained autonomous vehicle testing permits from California's Department of Motor Vehicles.
Uber's San Francisco self-driving experiment attracted criticism from regulators immediately after its launch on Wednesday, when one of the Volvo SUVs was caught running a red light.
"Any action by Uber to continue the operation of vehicles equipped with autonomous technology on public streets in California must cease until Uber complies," Soublet wrote in a letter Thursday to the company, suggesting that failure to obtain a permit will lead to legal action. On a conference call with reporters Friday afternoon, Levandowski said that the cars are continuing to pick up passengers, according to The Verge. The DMV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Uber also faced potential legal trouble in France on Friday, where the government requested that the company address a new round of protests from drivers upset over their working conditions. The drivers accuse Uber of ignoring France's labor protection laws, Reuters reported.