[estefan]

Not sure why you're being downvoted. It's the MO of airbnb, uber and other SV startups. We've seen more than once that making a land grab for a new market brings more long-term success than any penalties dished out for not playing by the rules.

[cstejerean]

Because there is no reason to guess and make baseless claims, the article already addressed this topic. A permit is not required because a safety operator is on board at all times. Skirting regulations and paying fines has nothing to do with it.

[estefan]

That's only because of Uber's interpretation. From the FT article:

> California law defines an autonomous vehicle as one that is able to drive “without the active physical control or monitoring by a human operator”.

> Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer who leads Uber’s driverless car efforts, said the fleet would be “self-driving” but not “autonomous”, making an unusual semantic distinction.

A pretty tenuous way of avoiding regulations if you ask me.

[Jarwain]

My understanding of the law is that an autonomous vehicle does not require control or monitoring. However, Uber's car has an operator monitoring the car's activity, although not actively controlling the car. Because of this, it is not considered autonomous by California law.

[jayjay71]

Apparently San Francisco disagrees.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/14/uber-ordered-to-stop-self-...