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Uber Halts Road Tests After Autonomous Car Hits, Kills Pedestrian in Arizona

By and | March 19, 2018

Uber Technologies Inc. halted autonomous vehicle tests after one of its cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, in what is likely the first pedestrian fatality involving the technology.

The woman was crossing the road outside of a crosswalk when the Uber vehicle, operating in autonomous mode under the supervision of a human safety driver, struck her, according to the Tempe Police Department. She was transferred to a local hospital where she died from her injuries. “Uber is assisting and this is still an active investigation,” Liliana Duran, a spokeswoman from the Tempe police, said in an emailed statement.

Uber said on Monday that it was pausing tests of all its autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto and the greater Phoenix area. “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”

As many self-driving cars have begun to roll out in pilot programs around the world, the chance of a pedestrian death has become more likely. Experts have long worried about the impact deadly crashes could have on the industry.

“We’re within the phase of autonomous vehicles where we’re still learning how good they are. Whenever you release a new technology there’s a whole bunch of unanticipated situations,” said Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University’s business school. “Despite the fact that humans are also prone to error, we have as a society many decades of understanding of those errors.”

Drivers relying on Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot technology have been involved in fatal car crashes. Uber has had minor incidents in the past. A self-driving Uber car ran a red light in San Francisco while the company operated in the city without regulatory approval. The California Department of Motor Vehicles eventually forced Uber to pull the cars from the road.

The National Transportation Safety Board is opening an investigation into the death and is sending a small team of investigators to Tempe, spokesman Eric Weiss said.

The NTSB opens relatively few highway accident investigations each year, but has been closely following incidents involving autonomous or partially autonomous vehicles. Last year, it partially faulted Tesla Autopilot system for a fatal crash in Florida in 2016.

Topics Auto Sharing Economy Ridesharing

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Latest Comments

  • March 26, 2018 at 5:12 pm
    Agent says:
    Are you ready to go out and stand in a road when an Autonomous car is coming and trust it to stop before it runs over you? Tesla couldn't even identify an 18 wheeler. Radar ... read more
  • March 26, 2018 at 12:13 pm
    Agency says:
    I don't know who is running with this, but I have read it a number of times in the past few years that driverless cars will come with insurance. However as we know, the news c... read more
  • March 22, 2018 at 3:13 pm
    CL PM says:
    Based on the video now widely available, it seems unlikely an average human driver could avoid that pedestrian. I agree with comments that an AV's radar (or whatever technol... read more

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