Uber is under investigation again, this time over the death of a woman in Tempe, Arizona. On Sunday night, the woman, when crossing the street, was hit and killed by an Uber self-driving car traveling at approximately 65 km/hour.
The victim was found unconscious at the scene and later died as a result of her injuries at the local hospital. She was seen pushing a bicycle covered with shopping bags and appeared who to be homeless.
All Uber self-driving car tests in North America, including Arizona, Pittsburgh, and Toronto, have since been suspended. The car, a Volvo XC90 SUV, did have a driver behind the wheel but was traveling in autonomous mode.
Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir warns how “it is dangerous to cross roadways in the evening hour when well-illuminated, managed crosswalks are available,” as the woman walked from a center median and into a lane of traffic, within 100 yards of a crosswalk, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
After going through video received from the front-facing camera of the self-driving Volvo, Moir has said: “it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode.”.
Tempe police have been investigating the incident and will continue to investigate, but it will ultimately be submitted to and reviewed by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Moir has also stated that it doesn’t seem likely that Uber will be at fault, although that does not rule out any charges that may apply to the driver behind the wheel.
Self-driving cars are meant to reduce the number of fatalities on the road, yet this incident highlights how far this new technology still has to go when up against simple errors in human judgment.
The Canadian transportation ministry in Ottawa will also be reviewing the investigation due to the testing that was scheduled in Toronto.
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