Doubt over Uber "human error" in San Francisco trials: NY Times
Uber's autonomous cars ran six red lights in San Francisco, California, during a "short period of time" according to documents obtained by a public records request. Uber spokesperson Chelsea Kohler told the New York Times that human intervention was needed after the self-driving technology failed to recognise red lights. Kohler said: "The vehicle operator had time to intervene, but failed to take over before crossing the stop line." Uber was recently slapped with a lawsuit by Alphabet's Waymo, claiming former employee, Anthony Levandowski, who now runs Uber’s autonomous car division, stole company secrets.

Mr. Levandowski gained some notoriety within Google for selling start-ups, which he had done as side projects, to his employer. In his biography for a real estate firm, for which he is a board member, Mr. Levandowski said he sold three automation and robotics start-ups to Google, including 510 Systems and Anthony’s Robots, for nearly $500 million. After this story was published, the real estate firm updated its website erasing Mr. Levandowski’s biography and said that it had “erroneously reported certain facts incorrectly without Mr. Levandowski’s knowledge.”

During Mr. Levandowski’s time on Google’s self-driving car project, the company’s advances pushed autonomous vehicles out of the realm of science fiction. By late 2016, nearly 60 of Google’s self-driving cars had driven more than two million miles on the road in four different states. But according to former co-workers, Mr. Levandowski became frustrated with the pace of progress at Google, worrying that the company was squandering its technical advantage by not moving fast enough.

When Otto was unveiled in May, it showcased a flashy video of one of its trucks on a haul through the Nevada desert. The star of the show was the driver’s seat, completely empty, as the truck drove itself down the highway.

But that test drive was carried out without the proper permits and against the will of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, a move that the agency eventually called “illegal.”

When Uber bought Otto, Mr. Levandowski found a kindred spirit in Mr. Kalanick, who is also known for pushing the rules. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in August 2016, Mr. Kalanick said they were “brothers from another mother.”