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At $150 a permit, Uber likely did this to get a ton of free publicity. Judging from the number of articles I've read, it seems to have worked to their advantage.

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It all seemed like really bad publicity though. Everything I saw described Uber as reckless and having subpar technology.

It might make sense if they assumed that they'd be successful. If the press spends all their time talking about how Uber is flaunting the rules by putting out a self driving car into their fleet and all the while this thing performs perfectly, it's fantastic press.

They probably just assumed that their cars weren't going to run red lights and terrorize bicyclists.

As best as I can tell, they don't even need $150 per car, they just need a $150 permit for the company as a whole. Their test drivers do need to be enrolled in the Employer Pull Program, but it looks like that's just $5 (this program lets companies track the driving record of their enrolled employees).

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