Uber ends Arizona autonomous testing following death
Ride-share pioneer terminates test program after first death caused by a driverless vehicleUber has announced it has pulled the plug on all autonomous vehicle testing in the US state of Arizona following an incident in March when one of its self-driving vehicles struck and killed a woman crossing the street.
Announcing that it would pull the plug on driverless vehicle testing in Arizona, Uber added that it planned to continue its autonomous vehicle development in Pennsylvania and California, but on a smaller scale.
The ride-share app did not provide a detailed timescale of when it planned to resume testing, other than saying it hoped to restart its program in the third quarter of this year.
The decision to shut down its self-driving testing operations coincides with Arizona state governor, Doug Ducey, ruling to suspend Uber's licence to test within the state.
"As a governor, my top priority is public safety," said Ducey in a letter to Uber, adding: "In the best interests of the people of my state, I have directed the Arizona State Department of Transportation to suspend Uber's ability to test and operate autonomous vehicles on Arizona's public highways."
Going on to describe the crash that killed the 49-year-old woman as "disturbing and alarming", the governor said the incident raised "many questions about the ability to continue testing in Arizona".
Uber began developing its experimental self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania back in 2016 before expanding to other places, including Arizona, California and Toronto in Canada.
All testing was halted in March following the well-publicised crash that involved an adapted Volvo XC90 fitted with Uber's driverless technology.
Around 300 workers at Uber's Arizona's R&D hub will now lose their jobs following the ride-share app's decision to close its operation there.
Earlier this week Uber announced ride bookings leapt by 51 per cent to $US11.3 billion ($A15b) over this time last year.
Despite the gains, Uber still lost $US312 million ($A410 million).
The ride-share app told investors it would remain loss-making as it continued to invest heavily in its existing food-delivery business and branch out into a bike-renting service.
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