Uber's showdown with California regulators is over, and the regulators won. After a week of legal threats, meetings, and very official letters, Uber announced late Wednesday that it would park the self-driving vehicles that have been providing rides in San Francisco. Legally, the company had little choice, because the state Department of Motor Vehicles officially revoked the registration on each of the 16 robo-cars after Uber brazenly refused to apply for an autonomous testing permit. Tough tactics aside, regulators did extend a hand in friendship. "I want to reassure you that the California Department of Motor Vehicles stands ready to work with you collaboratively," DMV Director Jean Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Uber public affairs head Davis White. Shiomoto said her agency "dedicated a team to work with you to expedite the [testing permit] approval process."

I can't tell from the back seat who's in control of Google's autonomous Lexus. The SUV is prowling the streets of Mountain View, California, but it's only after lead engineer Dmitri Dolgov flings his hands into the air that I realize he may be in the driver's seat, but the computer is in control. After a flurry of pronouncements from companies racing headlong into autonomous driving, Google's venerable project feels like an afterthought. After all, Ford CEO Mark Fields promises hundreds or thousands of autonomous taxis by 2021. Lyft co-founder John Zimmer says most customers will tool around in robo-cars within five years.

Fast-tracking development of autonomous vehicles will significantly reduce road deaths in America, says the Department of Transportation. The American public has some questions first.

The Department of Transportation unveiled, on Tuesday (Sept. More important, these guidelines place self-driving cars directly under the purview of federal regulators. Automobile manufacturers, for the first time, will need "pre-market approval" from the DoT. "We're saying that when the software is operating the vehicle, that is an area that we intend to regulate," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Further, regulators want automakers to provide the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with a safety assessment report on how the safety of their highly autonomous cars will be measured.

When Uber's self-driving Volvos hit the streets of Pittsburgh later this summer, each vehicle will be crewed by a couple of Uber employees, just in case the car's robo-driver goes rogue. But pay no attention to the humans in the front seats. "The goal is to wean us off of having drivers in the car, so we don't want the public talking to our safety drivers," said Uber engineering director Raffi Krikorian. To that end, Uber plans to install a tablet in the backseat of each of its autonomous vehicles. The company's new human-machine interface will reportedly introduce riders to the autonomous driving experience, and explain the technology behind it.