After fatality, Uber gives up on autonomous vehicle testing
DETROIT — Uber has decided to stop testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by letting its state permit expire on March 31.
If the ride-hailing service wants to return to the state, it will have to get a new permit and address any investigations into a crash involving one of its autonomous test SUVs in Arizona that killed a pedestrian, the California DMV said in a letter sent to the company.
California is the second state in which Uber won’t be able to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges because of the crash.
Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous-vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as California, Pittsburgh and Toronto.
Uber is still allowed to test on public roads in Pennsylvania and Ontario. Pennsylvania said in a statement that it will work with Uber to “ensure any restart of testing is done with safety as the top priority.” Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation said it is watching developments in Arizona and will consider appropriate measures when more is known.
On March 18 an Uber autonomous Volvo SUV struck and killed a woman who was walking a bicycle across a darkened boulevard in Tempe, near Phoenix. Experts have told The Associated Press that the SUV’s laser and radar sensors should have spotted the pedestrian, and the vehicle should have stopped. In addition, the SUV’s human backup driver appeared to be looking down before the crash and had a stunned look when it happened, according to dash-camera video released by police.
The Uber crash is being investigated by Tempe police, as well as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.