One of Uber’s self-driving cars ran into a woman who was crossing the street outside of the crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona, USA, on Sunday March 18. This was during a test ride of Uber’s self-driving car technology. There are not many details of this accident released as of right now. There was a human monitoring the self-driving car, but he must not have interfered. He may have been distracted, or there may be some other reason.
Immediately after the accident, Uber stopped all self-driving car testing until further notice. Uber has not made a full report of this accident, not much is known about the causes or Uber’s entire reaction.
This is bad for the self-driving car industry, a bad sign, as other companies will begin letting self-driving cars drive on public roads without a human in the vehicle to supervise it starting April 2nd. This may postpone development and deployment of future self-driving cars, but we have yet to see a reaction from other companies, notable figures, or the government.