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Uber suspends self-driving cars after Arizona accident

Uber has grounded its fleet of self-driving cars after the crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle in...
Newstalk
Newstalk

18.22 26 Mar 2017


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Uber suspends self-driving car...

Uber suspends self-driving cars after Arizona accident

Newstalk
Newstalk

18.22 26 Mar 2017


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Uber has grounded its fleet of self-driving cars after the crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona, according to a spokesperson for the car-hailing service.

The accident occurred Friday in Tempe while the Volvo SUV was carrying two engineers in the front and no backseat passengers, although no-one was seriously injured in the crash.

"We are continuing to look into this incident and can confirm we had no backseat passengers in the vehicle," the Uber spokesperson said.

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Initial police reports suggest the collision when the other vehicle "failed to yield" while making a left turn.

Tempe police spokeswoman Josie Montenegros said that "the vehicles collided causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto it's side. There were no serious injuries."

Self-driving Uber cars always have a driver who can take control of the car at any time if needed, but Florida police say they are unsure if a driver was controlling the car at the time of the accident.

The accidents comes at the latest in a series of bad news for the company, following reports of sexism, law-enforcement evading software and the departure of the company's president, Jeff Jones.

Those in favour of self-driving vehicles say they cut down on human error and can eliminate road traffic incidents, however there have been several accidents, including a fatality in Florida last May when a truck hit a speeding Tesla that was on autopilot.

An investigation into the accident found no safety-related defects with the autopilot system, but did come to the conclusion that the driver may have had time to avert the crash if he had been paying closer attention.


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