Uber took its fleet of self-driving cars off the roads while it started Investigations a crash that allegedly left one of its driverless-SUVs sitting on its side, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The accident has once again raises questions regarding the safety of autonomous driving technology and how it will interact with other drivers on the road. There was a person behind the wheel at the time of Friday’s accident. According to a company spokeswoman, the vehicle was in self-driving mode and that there were no backseat riders. The company’s self-driving fleet has been taken off the roads in Arizona pending the investigation.
Uber has been aggressively moving towards putting its self-driving cars on the roads with passengers in the backseat. As a precaution, the vehicles have a safety engineer who can take control if necessary. Other companies who have been developing the technology, including Google’s Waymo have been hesitant to put people in the backseat without further testing.
The crash comes at a time Uber is grappling with numerous crises. Among them, a number of Uber employees have been accused of stealing intellectual property from Waymo and using it as a basis for Uber’s self-driving technology.
It also remains unclear to what extent self-driving cars will be regulated by federal and state governments. Last year, the Transportation Department released a policy paper outlining 15 guidelines for developers of self-driving cars. In states across the country, legislators are debating how to allow the vehicles to be tested on functioning streets without endangering passengers and other drivers.
More than 35,000 people in the United States were killed in motor vehicle accidents in 2011, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with majority of them due to human errors. Technology enthusiasts believe the number will be reduced significantly as more self-driving vehicles get on the road.
