Uber drops self-driving operation in Arizona, following fatality

Two months after an autonomous car struck and killed a woman in Arizona, Uber is shuttering its self-driving car program in the state.

Uber, which suspended its self-driving car testing program in Arizona following the March 18 death of a 49-year-old woman after she was struck by one of the cars, has dropped the program altogether. the Wall Street Journal first reported the decision, citing an internal memo.

"We're committed to self-driving technology, and we look forward to returning to public roads in the near future," the memo stated, adding that Uber is continuing to conduct a "top-to-bottom safety review."

The company will continue to pursue autonomous car technology, but the testing program in Arizona will not resume.

Uber's testing program had been based in California until Arizona's governor, Doug Ducey, pushed for a move to that state in 2016. Ducey, following the March death, ordered the suspension of the testing.

A crowded space

Apple is among the companies at various stages of competing in the autonomous car space, as it continues to pursue patents; its fleet, as of this month, consists of 55 cars in California. General Motors, Tesla and Waymo, a corporate sibling of Google, are other competitors in the space.

One analyst, Guggenheim's Robert Cirha, speculated earlier this year that Apple will be either "all in or all out" on autonomous car technology within the next two years.

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32 Comments

lkrupp

said about 5 years ago

Well it’s starting to look like self-driving cars will go the way of Google Glass. The public will simply not accept them. Something like 50,000 people in the U.S. are killed each year in automobile accidents and no one bats an eyelash. Yet people are indeed convinced that driving a car is safer than flying in an airplane even though ALL the data and statistics prove otherwise. All it took was a couple of fatalities for the recriminations and hand wringing over autonomous vehicles to start. Add to that the state of the legal system in this country and you know the injury lawyers are salivating over the prospects. Much easier for a jury to blame a machine than a human. Self-driving cars are a solution to a problem no one cares about and no one believes. Those testing them just don’t know it yet. Apple and others will never EVER convince the general public that these vehicles are safe. Yes, momma, stupid is as stupid does. And you just know that there will those, “Here, hold my beer while I try to fuck over up this auto-car here, Bubba” moments.

Soli

said about 5 years ago

Uber takes shortcuts and makes ethically questionable decisions that negatively affect people. Shocking¡

lkrupp said:

Well it’s starting to look like self-driving cars will go the way of Google Glass.

No it isn’t.

muthuk_vanalingam

said about 5 years ago

In my view, driving a vehicle is as much an art as it is science. When this is treated as a pure science, ignoring the art part - problems are bound to happen. In my view, the focus of technology should be to help the human driver minimise the accidents/impact due to accident through various built-in mechanisms, instead of removing the human from the driving role.

franklinjackcon

said about 5 years ago

lkrupp said:

Well it’s starting to look like self-driving cars will go the way of Google Glass. The public will simply not accept them. Something like 50,000 people in the U.S. are killed each year in automobile accidents and no one bats an eyelash. Yet people are indeed convinced that driving a car is safer than flying in an airplane even though ALL the data and statistics prove otherwise. All it took was a couple of fatalities for the recriminations and hand wringing over autonomous vehicles to start. Add to that the state of the legal system in this country and you know the injury lawyers are salivating over the prospects. Much easier for a jury to blame a machine than a human. Self-driving cars are a solution to a problem no one cares about and no one believes. Those testing them just don’t know it yet. Apple and others will never EVER convince the general public that these vehicles are safe. Yes, momma, stupid is as stupid does. And you just know that there will those, “Here, hold my beer while I try to fuck over up this auto-car here, Bubba” moments.

Don't assume that because Uber half-arsed it and had to pack it in that this applies to anyone else. The stats on the need for driver intervention comparing Uber and Google are insane, something like every 13km vs 9000km. Uber should never have been on the road. Google is streets ahead. I would guess that Apple will be getting the tech spot on before they get out on the street and will hopefully have some tech in place to prevent their testers from drifting off and killing someone. It'll take time but this is already happening.

Soli

said about 5 years ago

franklinjackcon said:
I would guess that Apple will be getting the tech spot on before they get out on the street and will hopefully have some tech in place to prevent their testers from drifting off and killing someone. It'll take time but this is already happening.

Face ID tech seems primed for determining whether the pilot is reasonably situationally aware.