Uber wants Pennsylvania driverless rules delayed

Uber has urged the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to delay spelling out rules for driverless car testing in the state. The ride-hailing giant, which has been conducting such tests in the state for some weeks now, wants PennDoT to wait for state legislation before issuing regulations.

 

PennDoT has released a proposal for such guidelines, which would let the state access Uber’s data and dictate where tests can be performed. While potentially useful for drawing up legislation, those guidelines should not hamper testing until actual legislation has been passed, says Uber. 

 

The company favours a policy less restrictive on the development and testing of self-drive cars, but PennDoT insists releasing its guidelines before the passing of legislation makes sense, even if they may still need to be fine-tuned. 

 

Uber and other autonomous-driving developers like GM are worried about requirements to submit testing proposals to PennDoT, to confirm that their vehicles meet federal and state standards, and to notify the authorities if and when they conduct tests without drivers. They say these requirements would delay testing without increasing safety. 

 

In other Uber news, the Mercury News reports that Uber CFO Gautam Gupta recently told investors that the company lost an estimated $520 (€490) million in the first quarter of 2016 and $720 (€678) million in the second quarter.