After initially refusing, Uber says it will apply for a California DMV self-driving car testing permit
Uber is now in the process of getting a permit from the California DMV to resume testing its self-driving vehicles on public state roads. Uber started testing its self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs …
Context & Ripple Effects
In December, Uber dug in against California's regulator, refusing to apply for a testing permit and instead asking the DMV to explain how its San Francisco Volvo XC90 tests differed from Teslas running Autopilot without one. That legalistic position has now collapsed: Uber says it will apply for the permit and resume testing on public roads.
The reversal matters because the permit regime Uber resisted is quickly becoming the industry's scoreboard — Waymo went on to win the DMV's first driverless-testing permit in 2018, and Lyft secured its own testing permit that November. Uber's eventual return to California's roads came only in 2020, nearly two years after the fatal Arizona crash halted its program.
First-order effects
- Uber's Volvo XC90 test fleet can legally resume driving on California public roads, but now under DMV reporting and oversight requirements it spent months arguing did not apply to it.
Second-order effects
- With Uber inside the permit system, the DMV's public permit list becomes a competitive comparison point — Lyft and Waymo's earlier compliance makes Uber look like the laggard that had to be forced in line.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, state-level permits become the de facto license to develop autonomous vehicles in the US, and regulators gain leverage simply by controlling who appears on the list — a structure later reinforced by Waymo's first driverless permit and Uber's post-crash re-entry.
The trend: Autonomous-vehicle development in the US is consolidating around state permit regimes as the gatekeeping mechanism, converting what companies once treated as optional paperwork into the price of testing on public roads.