Uber halts autonomous testing after fatal accident in Arizona

An autonomous car operated by Uber Technologies has crashed into and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, USA.

Police in the city of Tempe said that the car, a modified Volvo XC90, was driving itself with an operator behind the wheel when it struck a woman crossing the road with a bicycle. The woman later died from her injuries in hospital.

"A female walking outside of the crosswalk crossed the road from west to east when she was struck by the Uber vehicle," Tempe Police said in a statement.

Uber said on Twitter that it is "fully cooperating" with the police investigation and has expressed condolences to the victim's family. Tempe police are investigating the incident, along with the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The company has halted autonomous vehicle testing, which it was operating in Phoenix and Tempe in Arizona, as well as in other cities including Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.

Uber began testing self-driving testing in Tempe in February 2017, when it switched operations from California following a dispute with officials in that state. A few months after testing began, an Uber vehicle was involved in an accident with another vehicle, which failed to yield at a junction. Nobody was hurt in that incident.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said via his Twitter account: "We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”

Tempe mayor Mark Mitchell said: "The City of Tempe has been supportive of autonomous vehicle testing because of the innovation and promise the technology may offer in many areas, including transportation options for disabled residents and seniors. Testing must occure safely. All indications we have had in the past show that traffic laws are being obeyed by the companies testing here."

Although there have been crashes involving self-driving vehicles, including a well-documented one involving a Google autonomous car in 2016, today’s incident is thought to be the first resulting in a death.

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