More than a week after one of Uber’s self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, government officials and technology firms have begun reconsidering their rapid deployment of some autonomous technology amid fears it was not ready for public testing.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey banned Uber’s self-driving cars from the state’s roads Monday, saying he was “very disturbed” by police video showing the pedestrian fatality last week in Tempe. The ban was limited to Uber, but held special significance because Ducey had previously welcomed Uber’s testing in the state by pitting Arizona’s comparatively relaxed regulatory framework against neighboring California.

In a letter Monday to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Ducey said he was suspending the company’s self-driving tests until further notice, calling the video “disturbing and alarming” and explaining that it “raises many questions about the ability of Uber to continue testing in Arizona.” Uber had already voluntarily suspended autonomous vehicle testing across North America in the wake of the crash.

Another company with self-driving ambitions, computer chip-maker Nvidia, suspended its autonomous vehicle tests Tuesday amid the investigations into the Uber crash, Nvidia spokesman Fazel Adabi said. Nvidia supplies computing technology for Uber’s self-driving cars, including for the same model involved in last week’s crash, and is testing self-driving cars in California and New Jersey, among other locations.

Meanwhile, Boston reinstated testing privileges for self-driving startups nuTonomy and Optimus Ride vehicles this week after conducting a safety review in the crash’s aftermath and finding those companies were in compliance with city standards. Through a partnership with Lyft, nuTonomy self-driving vehicles make ride-hailing trips in parts of Boston, though there is always a backup driver in place.

Video released last week by Tempe police graphically illustrated how Uber’s self-driving Volvo XC90 and backup driver failed to protect 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she walked her bike across a road around 10:30 p.m.

Advertisement

The National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating the crash, along with Tempe police.

The chief executive officer of Waymo, formerly Google’s self-driving vehicle unit, said over the weekend that he is confident its cars would have been able to handle the situation faced by the Uber in Tempe. At a lunchtime roundtable with reporters in Washington, Lyft President John Zimmer seemed to agree that the vehicle and backup driver should have intervened, based on the sequence of events in the video.

“It did look like both the tech and the driver could have or should have prevented that,” he said, before adding, “I don’t know all the details.”

The reactions from government officials and technology executives made clear the chilling impact from the March 18 Uber crash, which was the first pedestrian fatality during testing of autonomous vehicles. It was unclear, however, if the fallout would be lasting or stretch beyond Uber and its partners.

“Improving public safety has always been the emphasis of Arizona’s approach to autonomous vehicle testing, and my expectation is that public safety is also the top priority for all who operate this technology in the state of Arizona,” Ducey told Khosrowshahi in his letter. “The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation.”

A spokesman for the governor said the ban would last indefinitely.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.