Uber wants to test driverless cars in Pittsburgh again—the mayor is pissed

Enlarge / Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. (credit: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)

Uber announced on Wednesday that it was permanently shutting down self-driving car testing in Arizona, laying off hundreds of workers in the state. The decision comes two months after an Uber self-driving car killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in Tempe. But the company insisted that it wasn't shutting down its self-driving car program as a whole. In an internal email obtained by Ars Technica, Uber said that it had a "goal of resuming operations in Pittsburgh this summer."

Hours later, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto released a press release blasting the plan. "Uber did not tell me of today's announcement, and I was forced to learn about it through social media reports," the mayor wrote. "This is not the way to rebuild a constructive working relationship with local government, especially when facing a public safety matter."

It's not clear if Peduto has the legal power to block Uber's return to Pittsburgh. But the mayor could certainly make Uber's life miserable if they decided to return to the city over Peduto's objections.

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