Self-driving Uber vehicle kills pedestrian in Arizona

A self-driving Uber vehicle has reportedly hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. The vhicle, which was allegedly in autonomous mode had a driver, who was not driving, behind the wheel. Local news reports

 

say a woman was walking outside of a crosswalk when she was hit. She was taken to a hospital where she died.

Arizona has been a destination for autonomous driving pilot projects and has a rather relaxed mandate to allow testing. Uber has reportedly ceased all autonomous driving tests in the area while investigations are going on. Uber has also halted similar initiatives in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto and Phoenix. This is the first pedestrian casualty resulting from autonomous vehicles failing to sense a person and killing them.

An incident involving a Tesla and its autopilot feature (not autonomous driving) resulted in a crash that killed the driver last year.

Source: Mashable