"These cars are legally registered and are being driven manually," an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch on Thursday. "We are taking steps to complete our application to apply for a DMV testing permit. As we said in December, Uber remains 100 percent committed to California."

For now, however, the company's fleet of Volvo XC90s won't be carrying passengers. Instead, they're currently being used to generate maps of the city streets. Uber hasn't even actually applied for the permit yet but is working with the department to get its paperwork together and does plan to move forward, per a Mercury News report.