Uber’s Self-Driving Car Kills a Pedestrian: Uber has been working on self driving cars from quite a time but recently, one of their test car was involved in an accident. It resulted in death of 49 year old US citizen in Arizona as Uber’s self driving Volvo XC90 didn’t responded to a road crossing pedestrian. The hit was intense as XC90 was travelling at 64 kmph.
The car was in autonomous mode while there was a backup driver behind the wheel for emergency conditions. Police has confirmed that driver is cooperating with them and they will soon find out what led to this fatal accident in Arizona.
A statement from authorities cleared that accident was a result of higher than required reliance on technology. Uber has halted autonomous vehicle testing in Toronto, San Francisco and Pittsburgh. This is the first ever death caused by a fully autonomous vehicle as Tesla’s crash was tagged under semi autonomous conditions.
The driver was required to take control in that case at all times. Here, the system was automatically driving the car around within city limits. Uber is working hard on innovation to make transport easy for the future. They are simultaneously working on flying cars too.
It seems like testing these vehicles under real life conditions may not be as safe as everybody thought few months back. The court will decide what to do next as many countries have banned the use and testing of autonomous vehicles for safety reasons.
Radar based functions are quite clear and transparent in working but it is yet to be seen how companies make them 100 percent flawless for human safety. Brands like Tesla are working for clean and stress free ride experience while Uber and other taxi services are trying to get the best out of everything for getting their operating cost down.
