Ride sharing company Uber has made a decision to pause its testing of self-driving vehicles after one of its cars struck and killed a woman in Arizona.
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Company officials say Uber is halting all of its self-driving testing as of Monday as the investigation continues. He updated that mandate earlier this month to allow testing of unmanned self-driving cars, noting that a “business-friendly and low regulatory environment” had helped the state’s economy.
“Despite the fact that humans are also prone to error, we have as a society many decades of understanding of those errors”. The victim was a 49-year-old woman, who police report was walking outside the crosswalk at the time of the crash.
The victim, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, has a history of minor crimes and drug offenses; she spent more than a year in prison, getting out in December 2016, for cannabis and risky drug violations. In addition, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is also investigating the crash, agency spokesman Christopher O’Neil said in an email to CR.
The incident occurred as companies have been pushing for regulatory clearance to offer self-driving auto ride services as soon as next year.
However, there have been warnings that the technology is being deployed before it is ready.
The former US Transport Secretary Anthony Fox called the accident a “wake up call” to policymakers, calling for a focus on safety.
He noted that 6,000 pedestrians and almost 40,000 people die annually on USA roads in more than 6 million crashes annually.
Last year, Ohmio Automotion announced plans to start producing self-driving vehicles here after launching driverless buses in Christchurch.
Last week, Magna International announced a deal with Lyft Inc., an American ride-hailing company that competes with Uber, to develop advanced driverless vehicle technology through a multi-year partnership and a US$200 million investment in Lyft.
It is understood that Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell was aware Uber was testing driverless cars on the city’s streets.
After the accident, Uber said it was pausing tests of all its self-driving vehicles on public roads in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto and the greater Phoenix area.
Precisely how the accident occurred was not originally known, but Uber reacted quickly, saying it would suspend its self-driving vehicle program until such time that an investigation into the accident is undertaken. The programme was later reinstated. However, Volvo said it did not make the self-driving technology. “And people are still going to die”, said Robert.
“We need to hold any judgment until investigations have been undertaken and videos and other data relating to the accident have been analysed”. “But I don’t think anybody is taking this lightly”.
The death fuelled concerns over the safety of autonomous vehicles as they move closer to widespread adoption.
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“Now that said, we’re talking about Uber, a company with a bad reputation for unethical behaviour and technological corner-cutting”.
