Uber’s Self-Driving Cars Set To Return To The Road In 2019: Reports

Gizmodo just published a story confirming that Uber has been “given the green light” to resume its testing of self-driving cars in Pennsylvania, according to reports from The Information. It appears that the company’s legal department made an internal announcement on Tuesday discussing the service, relaying the news that the company has improved safety features for the service in recent months.

As many might recall, the ride-sharing company stopped its AV testing on public streets after one of its cars was involved in a fatal collision in Arizona this March. Since then, in a report issued to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month, the company provided a laundry list of additional steps it would take to ensure safety of its AV program. They include:

• automatic braking;
• improved oversight and training for its workers;
• ensuring that two employees would ride in either of the front seats of its AVs during testing;
• an improved overall software system design; and
• improved system latency, allowing the detection of objects sooner, while enabling faster execution of resulting safety actions.

According to The Information’s story, Uber will next move to restart testing in San Francisco while beginning new road tests in Toronto.