Uber has pulled all its self-driving cars off the road as police in Arizona investigate a fatal collision involving one of its autonomous vehicles.
It is believed to be the first time a pedestrian has been killed in an incident involving a self-driving car. A Tesla driver died in a crash while using its Autopilot system in 2016.
The woman’s death in Tempe, Arizona will reawaken the debate over the safety of autonomous vehicles at a time when regulators and technology companies have been accelerating deployment of self-driving systems on public roads.
Tempe is a short distance to the east of Phoenix, one of a handful of North American cities where Uber is testing its self-driving technology alongside San Francisco, Toronto and Pittsburgh. Uber has suspended operations of its autonomous testing in all four locations.
The incident occurred at around 10pm local time on Sunday night, Tempe’s police department said in a statement.
“The vehicle involved is one of Uber's self-driving vehicles. It was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, with a vehicle operator behind the wheel,” Tempe police said. There were no passengers in the car.
The woman was crossing the road, apparently not on a designated pedestrian crossing, when she was struck by the Uber vehicle, a Volvo, according to the police. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died from her injuries. The woman’s name has not yet been released. “Uber is assisting and this is still an active investigation,” Tempe police said.
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” an Uber spokesperson said. “We are fully co-operating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, added in a Twitter post: “Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona. We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”
The incident is another setback for Uber’s controversial autonomous driving programme.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company was sued by Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, alleging theft of trade secrets. Uber paid $245m to settle the case last month and apologised.
In December 2016, Uber’s first attempt at testing autonomous cars in San Francisco was halted by regulators after it failed to apply for the necessary permits.
“This will test whether Uber has become a trustworthy company,” said Bryant Walker Smith, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina’s law school, who writes regularly about autonomous driving.
After the San Francisco dispute in 2016, Uber initially moved its entire fleet of autonomous cars to Arizona, where it was enthusiastically welcomed by the state’s governor Doug Ducey.
“Arizona welcomes Uber self-driving cars with open arms and wide-open roads,” Mr Ducey said in a statement at the time.
The state, which is used by several tech companies including Waymo and Intel for testing autonomous systems, has historically taken a lighter-touch approach to regulation of self-driving cars than California. Mr Ducey signed an executive order supporting the testing and operation of autonomous vehicles in 2015.
The fatality in Arizona comes less than a month after California approved new rules that would allow truly driverless cars without a human driver behind the wheel to use its public roads.
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