Autonomous?

Uber has put self-driving cars to work in San Francisco. California says they're illegal because they don't have permits. Uber says they're not exactly autonomous because a driver must be behind the wheel to monitor and possibly intervene.

Looks like Uber is inviting a lawsuit. Legal definitions of "autonomous cars" should come out of it eventually. 

"According to Anthony Levandowski, the leader of Uber’s self-driving program, Uber’s cars aren’t advanced enough to drive themselves without human monitoring. Therefore, he said, [they] are not autonomous — and do not require a permit."

"Parsing the definition of an autonomous vehicle is in line with Uber’s history of testing legal boundaries."

"Uber is sending another message to California: Other places want us if you don’t."