Source: Uber plans to resume testing of self-driving cars by August, in Pittsburgh and possibly San Francisco
Uber plans to resume testing self-driving cars by August, in Pittsburgh and possibly San Francisco, said a person familiar with the decision, five months after an Uber car struck … Tweets: @amir and @amir Tweets: Amir Efrati / @amir : Mystery solved: The carmaker that had approached Uber about a possible deal to buy its autonomous unit @UberATG was Toyota. http://go.theinformation.com/ ... Amir Efrati / @amir : Uber adopts recs to improve safety of self-driving cars ahead of planned August re-launch, e.g.:*Collision mitigation system*Focus on sim (natch)*Undoing suppression of signals that made ride smoother*Adding 2nd passenger to cars*Publishing researchhttps://t.co/1t61vfYwl1
Context & Ripple Effects
Five months after one of its cars struck a pedestrian in Arizona, Uber is moving to put autonomous vehicles back on public roads, targeting August in Pittsburgh and possibly San Francisco. The relaunch follows a playbook Uber has used before: it resumed San Francisco testing after an earlier halt following a crash, keeping the program alive through pauses rather than shutting it down.
The timing matters because the pause created openings around the unit. Toyota reportedly approached Uber about buying Uber ATG outright, and locally the plan landed badly — [[a:929861|Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto said he was unaware of the restart and wanted the federal investigation completed first]], setting up a city-versus-company fight over who authorizes road testing.
First-order effects
- Uber ATG engineers return to on-road testing under a revised safety regime — collision mitigation systems, heavier reliance on simulation, undoing the suppression of automated-braking signals, and added in-car oversight.
- Mayor Peduto and Pittsburgh's government are forced into a decision they say they weren't consulted on: whether to permit testing before the federal investigation concludes.
Second-order effects
- Toyota's reported interest in acquiring Uber ATG gets repriced by the relaunch — a resumed program is a more valuable acquisition target than a suspended one, giving Uber leverage in any negotiation.
- A public clash with Peduto over the restart raises the cost of the city-hostile approach for every AV operator testing in Pittsburgh, pushing companies toward earlier municipal engagement.
Third-order effects
- If the crash-pause-safety-report-relaunch cycle holds, it hardens into the de facto governance template for AV testing: no regulator-mandated shutdown, just company-authored safety reports and city acquiescence.
- Cities like Pittsburgh gaining veto leverage over test deployments points toward municipal permitting becoming a formal layer of AV regulation alongside federal investigations.
The trend: Autonomous vehicle programs are normalizing rapid post-crash restarts under company-defined safety measures, with host cities emerging as a second gatekeeper alongside federal investigators.