Uber Rolls Self-Driving Cars Onto San Francisco Streets; Finds Legal Trouble

Uber chose to ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission, rolling out self-driving cars to the public in San Francisco this week.

December 15, 2016, 10am PST | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

An Uber self-driving car on the streets of Pittsburgh.

Foo Conner

Flickr

Mike Isaac reports: "Uber made a big splash in its hometown on Wednesday when it started offering self-driving car service to passengers here, making San Francisco the second city in the world where the ride-hailing company provides autonomous vehicles for public use."

But, according to Issac, "California regulators made an even bigger splash late Wednesday when they told Uber to stop the service because it was illegal."

Adding to the drama of the brief experiment, one of Uber's self-driving cars, a Volvo XC90 got caught on camera running a red light shortly after the service began. The city of San Francisco isn't the first to have Uber self-driving cars hit the road—it's just that when the company rolled self-driving cars out to the public in Pittsburgh it had permission to do so.