iStock/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) — Uber has announced that it will keep testing its self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco, despite demands from California regulators to apply for permits if they wish to continue doing so.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered Uber to stop its tests.

“We have a permitting process in place to ensure public safety as this technology is being tested,” the DMV said in a press release on Wednesday. “Twenty manufacturers have already obtained permits to test hundreds of cars on California roads. Uber shall do the same.”

However, Uber argued that it did not need to apply for a permit as its self-driving cars have humans behind the wheel who can take over in case of a problem. When one of their vehicles was reported to have run a red light earlier this week, the company blamed the human driver for the error.

In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Uber’s vice-president of Advanced Technologies Anthony Levandowski said his company’s self-driving tests use the same technology as other driver assist technologies present in thousands of other cars already on the road.

“The distinction between our self-driving Ubers and the autonomous vehicles described by California State law is not a legal nicety,” he said later in an online statement on Friday.

Uber said it will keep the cars on the road despite the DMV’s threats of legal action.

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.