Uber will not renew self-driving car permit in California

Uber will not renew its permit to test self-driving cars in California after one of its autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona last week.

{mosads}California Department of Motor Vehicles chief counsel Brian Soublet wrote in a letter that Uber “will not renew its current permit to test autonomous vehicles in California.”

Should Uber change its mind, the ride-hailing company would have to address findings from its investigation and analysis of the accident in Arizona and potentially meet with the DMV to further discuss the crash, Soublet wrote.

“We proactively suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident,” Matt Kallman, an Uber spokesman, said in a statement provided to Bloomberg. “Given this, we decided not to reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future.”

Since the fatal accident, Uber has temporarily halted its self-driving car operations in other cities such as Toronto, Pittsburgh San Francisco and Phoenix.

The state of Arizona also suspended Uber from operating in the state on Tuesday. In a letter to Uber, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) called the crash an “unquestionable failure” to meet public safety expectations.