Uber is moving its fleet of self-driving vehicles from San Francisco to Phoenix, Arizona, having failed to gain support from California regulators for its stance that refusing to obtain a permit to test the cars was a matter of "principle". "Our cars departed for Arizona this morning by truck," an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. "We'll be expanding our self-driving pilot there in the next few weeks, and we're excited to have the support of Governor Ducey." Uber's self-driving pilot program lasted just one week in its hometown of San Francisco. Within hours of the pilot's launch, multiple cars were caught running red lights, and state regulators ordered the vehicles off the road until the company had obtained a permit.

Uber has halted its self-driving car trials in San Francisco and agreed to work with state regulators on obtaining proper permits for 16 test cars. The move amounts to a climbdown by Uber, which had last week argued it didn't need to obtain the permits. That sparked a demand from the state that the cars be pulled off the roads immediately and a threat of legal action if they were not. Uber had argued its cars didn't require autonomous car permits because they didn't meet the law's definition of being autonomous. It said the cars require a driver in the front seat at all times, and so are not autonomous but more akin to Tesla cars with advanced auto-pilot software.