Items tagged with California DMV
In 2020 we are all too familiar with incidents in which private companies sell user data. Many of us are less familiar with the ways that public entities can also sell and circulate data. It was recently revealed that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) frequently sells drivers’ data to private investigators, bail bondsmen, and other companies. Motherboard recently obtained a document through the California Public Records Act that lists 98,000 businesses and institutions that have accessed DMV data. This information can include driver's name, home address, email address, ZIP code, date of birth, phone number, etc. These entities ranged from trucking companies to private investigators...
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California, a state that is known for its tough talk on privacy regulations, is coming under fire for its own actions regarding the misuse use of drivers’ personal information. Thanks to an inquiry by Motherboard, it's been discovered that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has been selling private records to third parties, and has been pulling in quite a bit of money in the process over the past decade. According to the report, during the fiscal 2017/2018 period alone, the California DMV pulled in over $52 million by selling this data. Personal information within the records contains drivers’ full name, physical address, and car registration. However, the...
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You will not be seeing Uber’s self-driving vehicles on the roads of San Francisco any longer. The driver-less vehicles are banned since the state of California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revoked Uber’s registration. Uber had started testing its self-driving cars before receiving an autonomous vehicles driving permit. California requires that self-driving vehicles be tested by the DMV before they go out on the road. Other companies have complied, however, Uber insisted that it did not need a permit, since the vehicles were not “fully” autonomous. Uber refused to apply for a permit, but was “open to having the conversation”. It turns out that the California DMV was not “open” to smoke-filled...
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Cyclists Beware! If you are on the roads of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or San Francisco, California, watch out for Uber’s self-driving cars. The corporation has admitted that its vehicles have a serious bike lane blindspot. When in self-driving mode, Uber’s vehicle tend to make “unsafe right-hook-style turn through a bike lane”. The blind spot is the self-driving car’s number one cause of collision. Uber spokeswoman Chelsea Kohler stated that “engineers are continuing to work on the problem”. For now, the company is advising drivers to take control of the vehicle when approaching right turns on a street with a bike lane. This admission comes on the heels of the state of California’s ban on Uber...
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California is making it legal for self-driving vehicles to hit the road. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has started issuing permits allowing these self-driving cars to be tested on the state’s public roads so long as certain requirements are met and fees are paid. A $150 application fee is required that will provide permits for 10 vehicles and 20 drivers. An additional $50 will add another 10 drivers. But that is not all. Back in May, new rules were outlined stipulating that a test driver is “either in immediate physical control of the vehicle or is actively monitoring the vehicle’s operations and capable of taking over immediate physical control.” The new...
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