The autonomous Uber car killed a woman in the street in Arizona, as confirmed by the police that appears to be the first fatal accident or crash to be reported. The crash involved the self-driven vehicle and pedestrian in the US.

Tempe police told the self-driving car was in autonomous mode while the crash took place and the vehicle hit the woman. The woman was walking outside of the crosswalk and died later at hospital. There was a vehicle operator inside the car when the crash took place.

Uber said in a statement on Twitter: “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.” A spokesman declined to add anything further on the crash.

The company told it was pausing its self-driving car operations in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted: “Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona. We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”

Uber has been frequently testing its self-driving cars in numerous states and temporarily put off its vehicles in Arizona last year after a crash concerning one of its vehicles, a Volvo SUV. In 2016, when the company first began testing its self-driving cars in California, the vehicles were caught breaking the red lights, leading to a high-profile clash between state regulators and the San Francisco-based Corporation.

Police recognized the victim as Elaine Herzberg, 49-year-old and said when she was hit at around 10pm on Sunday, and she was walking outside of the crosswalk with a bicycle. Images from the scene showed her damaged bike. The 2017 Volvo SUV was running at roughly 40 miles an hour and it did not seem that the car slowed down as it advanced the woman, said Tempe sergeant Ronald Elcock.

Elcock told he had watched footage of the accident, which has not been released to the public. He also recognized the operator of the car as Rafael Vasquez, 44, and said he was cooperative and confirmed there were no signs of impairment.

The self-driving technology is made-up in a way to detect pedestrians, cyclists and others and prevent crashes.

Privacy and technology project director, John M Simpson with Consumer Watchdog, said the crash highlighted the need for tighter guidelines of the nascent technology.

“The robot cars cannot accurately predict human behavior, and the real problem comes in the interaction between humans and the robot vehicles,” told Simpson, whose advocacy group was called for a national moratorium on autonomous car testing in the event of the deadly collision.

Simpson said he was not aware of any previous fatal crashes that involved any autonomous vehicle and a pedestrian.

In 2016, Tesla Motors was the first to disclose a death involving a self-driving car when the sensors of a Model S driving in autopilot mode failed to detect a large white 18-wheel truck and trailer which was crossing the highway. The car drove full throttle under the trailer, causing the collision which killed the 40-year-old behind the wheel in the Tesla.

California regulators, earlier this year, approved the testing of self-driving cars on public roads without human drivers monitoring inside.

Simpson said “The technology is not ready for it yet, and this just sadly proves it.”

In one other recent incident, California police officers found a Tesla that was stationary in the middle of a five-lane highway and found a driver asleep behind the wheel. The man spoke about the vehicle which was in “autopilot”, which is Tesla’s semi-autonomous driver assist system, and he was under arrest on suspicion of drunk driving.

In a different recent case, a Tesla car rear-ended a fire truck on a freeway, with the driver again significantly telling the authorities the car was in autopilot mode at the time of the collision.

Michael G Bennett, an Arizona State University associate research professor who studies autonomous cars, said the self-driving vehicles have become abundant around campus and on the streets in Tempe. Often they have operators behind the wheels, but sometimes they are fully autonomous with no human inside.

The fatal accident could spark significant calls for reform and reflections within the industry, he added.

“It may be problematic for the industry, because one of their central arguments for the value of the technology is that it is superior to human drivers,” Bennett said, adding that autonomous cars should be able to identify pedestrians and avoid hitting them, even if they aren’t in crosswalks: “Every day, pedestrians in cities around the world step outside of the crosswalk.”

Doug Ducey, who is the governor of Arizona, has been a strong promoter of allowing corporations to test the technology in his state, publicly slamming other governments for “over regulation” and urging Uber to “ditch California” in 2016  and launch in his region. He issued new rules in March, and said that more than 600 automated vehicles have driven since then on public roads in the state.

“Our prayers are with the victim, and our hearts go out to her family,” Ducey’s spokesman Patrick Ptak said in an email to the Guardian. He added further saying, “Public safety is our top priority.”

Linda Bailey, the executive director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (Nacto), told in an interview that there has not been sufficient regulatory oversight of testing and that some governments are overwhelmed who are trying to understand autonomous technology and its limitations.

“There’s an essential role for the public sector in regulating the safety of these vehicles, which has been largely left to private companies,” she told, adding further saying Nacto supports third-party testing of the vehicles.

Mark Mitchell, Tempe’s mayor, defended the city’s ongoing support of autonomous vehicles in a declaration Monday, saying: “All indications we had in the past show that traffic laws are being obeyed by the companies testing here.”

-By Kavita R

Source: The Guardian