Following the fatal crash, Uber banned from testing its self-driving vehicles

The ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. has recently been through a hard time as one of its self-driving cars killed a pedestrian last week. The repercussions of the crash have led to the US state Arizona suspending the company to test its autonomous vehicles in the state.

Last week, Uber’s self driving car was involved in a fatal accident in Arizona’s city of Tempe that took life of the 49-year-old pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg. Though the Tempe Police Department (PD) claim that it probably wasn’t the vehicle’s fault, and even Uber suspending its self-driving operations, Arizona has still banned the testing of Uber’s self-driving cars in the state.

As per The Verge, Uber had been testing its self-driving cars in Arizona since late 2016 but, this first such accident led to the ban by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Monday along with a letter, which mentioned that the decision is in ‘the best interests of the people’ of Arizona following Uber’s ‘unquestionable failure’. The dash cam video of the fatal crash that was released last week by Tempe PD was termed as ‘disturbing and alarming’ by Ducey as well.

Uber lands in hot water after its self-driving car kills woman

“Improving public safety has always been the emphasis of Arizona’s approach to autonomous vehicle testing, and my expectation is that public safety is also the top priority for all who operate this technology in the state. Arizona will not tolerate any less than an unequivocal commitment to public safety,” Ducey stated in the letter sent to Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

After the crash, the company instantly suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto and hasn’t yet informed when it will start operating them on public roads again. Last week, even Massachusetts asked firms to take a few days off from testing their autonomous vehicles on roads.

As per Bloomberg, an Uber’s spokesperson Matt Kallman wrote in a statement, “We continue to help investigators in any way we can, and we’ll keep a dialogue open with the governor’s office going forward.”