• by Chuck Martin , March 21, 2018

Trials of self-driving cars are being at least temporarily halted following the fatal crash involving an Uber autonomous vehicle that hit a pedestrian in Arizona.

Toyota and others have put their self-driving programs on at least a temporary hold.

“We cannot speculate on the cause of the incident or what it may mean to the automated driving industry going forward,” said Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons in a statement to the AI & IoT Daily. “Because we feel the incident may have an emotional effect on our test drivers, Toyota Research Institute has decided to temporarily pause its Chauffeur mode testing on public roads.”

Uber already had grounded its self-driving cars in Phoenix, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto.

Two Boston companies, Nutonomy and Optimus Ride, were asked by Boston officials to halt their tests in the Seaport area following the Arizona crash.  

"As a precautionary measure, we have temporarily asked Nutonomy and Optimus Ride to pause their autonomous vehicle testing programs on public streets in Boston," said Boston Transportation Department Commissioner Gina Fiandaca in a statement.

“We have complied with the City of Boston’s request to temporarily halt autonomous vehicle testing on public roads,” a Nutonomy spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are working with Boston officials to ensure that our automated vehicle pilots continue to adhere to high standards of safety,”

Arizona’s director for policy and communications at the state’s department of transportation, Kevin Biesty, told Reuters that existing regulations were sufficient and that the state had no immediate plans to issue new rules. “We believe we have enough in our laws right now to regulate automobiles,” Biesty said. “There will be issues that the legislature will have to address in the future as these become more widespread.”

In Arizona, a Department of Transportation spokesman told Fox News that “no changes have been made or are immediately forthcoming regarding testing of AVs in the state.”

Meanwhile, the Tempe police department released on Twitter the video of the accident recorded by the Uber vehicle.