An autonomously-driven Uber struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, late Sunday evening. A statement from local police indicates that the woman was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk. A bicycle was present at the accident scene, according to local news station ABC 15, but it’s not yet clear if the deceased was walking with or riding the bike.
The victim has not yet been identified. A human occupant was in the self-driven Volvo SUV at the time of the accident but was not in control of the vehicle.
Uber, for its part, says it is fully cooperating with local authorities. For now, Uber is suspending all autonomous vehicle testing in Tempe, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto. We also reached out to Volvo for a statement since one of their autonomous XC90s was involved. The company’s response was as follows: “We are aware of the incident and our thoughts are with the family of the woman involved. We are aware that Uber is cooperating with local authorities in their investigation.” Bloomberg reports that this is likely the first fatality involving a self-driving vehicle in the United States.
There are obvious legal ramifications regarding autonomous vehicles that a fatal accident such as this will likely influence. In the meantime, we’ll update this story as more news becomes available.
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