New emails detail battle between California and Uber

Uber’s public battle with the California Department of Motor Vehicles over a permit to test self-driving cars was part of a long battle between the state and the company, records show.

In December, Uber moved its self-driving car tests to Arizona, after briefly doing tests on the streets of San Francisco. The move was prompted by a fight over the company and the state, which requires a special license to test autonomous cars in California.

At the time, move of the test location seemed abrupt, but according to emails obtained by the Verge, Uber had been fighting with California over the course of several months.

{mosads}An Uber spokesperson declined to comment to The Hill about the emails, but pointed to blog post by a vice president at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, Anthony Levandowski. In the post, Levandowski contended that because the cars had humans ready to step in at any moment, they were not technically autonomous vehicles as defined by the law and should be able to use the roads in California.

The state rejected the company’s case, arguing that the cars were autonomous insofar as they employed autonomous vehicle technology.

According to the documents, California had pressed Uber to get a $150 permit for months, which the company repeatedly declined.

Uber began testing its cars in San Francisco in September and the controversy hit an apex when a self-driving car ran a red light there shortly after Uber began testing. The ride-hailing company claimed the car was under manual control, but sources disputed this to the New York Times.