Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Pedestrian In Arizona
- by Chuck Martin , March 19, 2018
A woman crossing the street in Arizona was hit by a
self-driving Uber and later died, according to police.
The woman had a bicycle and was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk, according to police. She was taken to a local hospital, where she died, according to the Tempe police department.
“Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona,” stated Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a Tweet. “We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”
This is believed to be the first pedestrian fatality involving a car operating in fully autonomous mode.
The car was operating in autonomous mode and there was an operator behind the wheel at the time, according to police. It is a common practice in autonomous vehicle trials to require an operator to be behind the wheel while the car is in motion.
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We’re fully cooperating with Tempe Police and local authorities as they investigate this incident,” Uber said in a statement.
Uber has paused self-driving operations in Phoenix, San Francisco, Toronto and Pittsburgh.
Uber also has self-driving trucks on the road in Arizona.
Waymo also has been testing autonomous vehicle in Arizona and the Google spinoff recently ordered thousands of hybrid minivans for its ride-hailing service in Phoenix.
Late last year, Waymo announced that its self-driving vehicles would be tested on public roads in Arizona without a driver at the wheel.
HERE'S THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THAT TIP OF THE ICEBERG RISING UP.
Sad to say, but it will take a few more killed to realize this is not
what most people want.
I hope you guys at IOT follow this and see who is going to be blamed/accept
responsibility, the lawyers , the settlements.
With enough accidents, the stocks will bottom out and then they will abandon this nonsense. I hope they get their clocks cleaned, and the AZ LEGISLATURE outlaws them .
It is the ultimate in arrogance that these AUTO-tonomous promoters think they can produce this 4000# machine and have it depend on millions of bits of information per second to keep it on the road ................no, not arrogance, just tech-no-stupidity.
THIS is different than a car driver hitting a pedestrian, but a family has lost a loved one for all the wrong reasons.
You've been flagging this for some time, Mark, and it looks like some of what you've been forecasting has tragicallyl come true here. Police are investigating so not all the details are yet known. Meanwhile, the Uber self-driving cars are off the road.
And Chuck, there WAS A DRIVER ON BOARD!! So what? The driver thinks he's in a self driving car, so why pay attentioin? In my opinion. being aware when a car is in control takes more effor than if you were drving it yourself. "just because You Can", doesn't mean we need to pursue it. Just like the lottery is "for the children", this is disguised as "safety",
Let's not get fooled by this. And again, no one that I know, in any age group, will ever buy or ride in one. My son has a 20 month old, and a newborn,
and his attitude, keep them away from my family.
"no one that I know, in any age group, will ever buy or ride in one."
Unfortunately, Mark, your friends, children, and grandchildren aren't any safer for not buying or riding in one, as we see from this incident. Anybody outside--people walking, riding bikes, skateboarding, or riding in other cars--is a potential victim. I shudder as I wonder HOW MANY people will have to die before somebody shuts down this horrible experiment? The police "investigating" the incident means absolutely nothing to me in today's America.
RIGHT ON Christina. I'm actively trying to get Tennessee legislature to shut this down before it arrives. One wacked out news commentator said "she wasn't in a crosswalk".
I can't even respond to something that moronic. What needs to happen is that someone needs to sue one of these companies for just having a driver unoccupied car on the streets and feel they are in danger of just being near an autonomous vehicle.