Ride-sharing giant Uber said Monday it is suspending use of self-driving cars after one of the vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in the US state of Arizona, a tragic milestone that could lead to a major setback in the otherwise feverish development of driverless transportation.
The Uber vehicle was in autonomous mode, with an operator behind the wheel, when it hit a woman walking in the street in the city of Tempe late Sunday, according to the San Francisco-based company.
The death of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who was crossing a street outside the marked crosswalk, appears to be the first time a self-driving car has been involved in the fatality of a person not inside the vehicle.
Traffic passes an intersection just north of the location where a woman pedestrian was struck and killed by a Uber self-driving sport utility vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, US, March 19, 2018.
The first deadly self-driving car accident was reported in mid-2016, and involved a Tesla.
In 2016, a man was killed while behind the wheel of a Tesla that was driving itself in Autopilot mode when a truck cut across its path — the first such death related to a car in self-driving mode. Investigators found the driver failed to heed warnings to take back control of his car.
The Arizona accident is poised to become a focal point of a debate over the viability of self-driving cars, which promoters vow will save lives while skeptics contend it remains dangerously ill-prepared for prime time.
“There will no doubt be an exhaustive investigation," says Akshay Anand, analyst at Kelley Blue Book. "It's clear is that this has the potential to severely impact public perceptions of autonomous technology, and should be handled with utmost prudence by regulators, authorities and the industry alike.”
Uber's test car was in self-driving mode when the accident occurred, but had a safety driver — a person who is supposed to step in and take control if there's a snafu — as is the norm when testing such vehicles, according to Tempe police.
At a press conference late Monday, Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock said the Uber-owned Volvo was driving at around 40 mph when it struck the pedestrian. The driver, identified as Rafael Vasquez, 44, was not found to be impaired, and was cooperating with police.
The victim stepped into the road mid-block at around 10 p.m. Sunday, police said. Elcock said that the victim might have been homeless.
Questions about whether anyone might be charged in the incident — be it the safety driver or Uber, if anyone — remain unanswered, and in fact are at the heart of ongoing issues about how self-driving cars would ultimately be regulated in case of accidents.
Rising concerns over the new tech surface
The incident is sure to add fuel to concerns on the part of some activists, such as Consumer Watchdog, who feel the technology that allows the cars to sense their surroundings is not ready for prime time.
Critics claim that legislators in autonomous-friendly states such as California, Arizona and Michigan are too eager to accommodate such testing in the hopes of being early winners in a new mobility sweepstakes.
In this July 13, 2012, file photo, Dara Khosrowshahi the CEO of Expedia, Inc., attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Two people briefed on the matter said that Khosrowshahi has been named CEO of ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc.
“There should be a national moratorium on all robot car testing on public roads until the complete details of this tragedy are made public and are analyzed by outside experts so we understand what went so terribly wrong," says John Simpson, privacy and technology project director at Consumer Watchdog.
"Arizona has been the Wild West of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place," he says. "That’s why Uber and Waymo test there. When there’s no sheriff in town, people get killed.”
Robbie Diamond, president of the non-partisan group Securing America's Future Energy, which advocates for mobility solutions that don't rely on oil, said that self-driving cars remain a viable way to reduce traffic deaths given the right oversight.
"As federal investigations shed light on the factors that led to this incident, policymakers must work towards a clear national framework to enable the prudent testing and development of this technology in a manner that will save lives as soon as possible.”
GM's competition isn't standing still: Slowly but surely, Waymo is deploying its own self-driving taxi fleet.
So far, public views on autonomy could be sobering for companies pumping billions into self-driving cars.
A 2017 survey by managment consultants Alix Partners revealed that 49% of consumers said they don’t currently feel confident in AVs’ abilities to navigate them safely, with 84% of respondents saying they were concerned about vehicle-software malfunctions and 80% saying the same about potential hardware malfunctions.
Ultimately, we may be in a difficult transition period where artificial intelligence systems such as those that power self-driving cars aren't sophisticated enough to deal with every situation, says Timothy Carone, an associate teaching professor in the Department of IT, Analytics, and Operations at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.
"Transitioning the knowledge that human beings have acquired over the decades of driving and flying over to autonomous systems like a driverless car or unmanned plane is a complex undertaking that will itself takes years of work for society to recognize the benefits of autonomous systems," he says, adding that what follows is a painful period where these systems improve gradually while human skills diminish.
Says Carone: "There will be a time when the autonomous system is not dealing correctly with a problem yet the humans will have lost their expertise and will not be able to take over from the autonomous system to prevent a tragedy."
'Wake up call'
Companies including Ford, General Motors, Tesla and Waymo are investing heavily in research to develop self-driving cars, which are often characterised as the future of the industry and hailed as a way to reduce traffic accidents.
Many states across America have welcomed the tests in the hope of keeping themselves at the forefront of new technology.
However, there have been warnings that the technology is being deployed before it is ready.
Anthony Foxx, who served as US Secretary of Transportation under former President Barack Obama, called the accident a "wake up call to the entire [autonomous vehicle] industry and government to put a high priority on safety."
More than a dozen states in the US allow autonomous vehicles on the roads to some degree. Officials typically require a person to be on hand either in the car or remotely in case something goes wrong, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
The US is working on national safety guidelines for such vehicles.
Consumer Watchdog, a lobby group that has warned of the risks of autonomous cars, on Monday called for a moratorium of such vehicles on public roads, describing the accident as a "tragedy we have been fighting years to prevent".
In this Dec. 13, 2016 file photo, an Uber driverless car waits in traffic during a test drive in San Francisco.
"We hope our calls for real regulation of driverless cars will be taken seriously going forward by Silicon Valley and the Trump Administration," the group wrote on Twitter.
Uber started testing driverless cars in Pittsburgh in 2016. The ride-hailing firm has also been testing driverless cars in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto and the Phoenix area, which includes Tempe.
The death comes a year after Uber took its self-driving cars off the road following an accident that left a Volvo SUV on its side in Arizona. The programme was later reinstated.
Carla Bailo, president and chief executive of the Center for Automotive Research, said more information about how the crash occurred is necessary before officials can say what went wrong and how the self-driving system should be improved.
She also said the fatality should be considered in the context of all accidents.
More than 37,000 people, including almost 6,000 pedestrians, died in traffic accidents in the US in 2016, according to the US Department of Transportation.
"We need to be fair and look at all the data," she said. "But I don't think anybody is taking this lightly. By far safety is the first concern.
Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell said he supports autonomous car tests because of the technology's potential. He also praised Uber's decision to suspend the programme as "responsible".
"Our city leadership and Tempe Police will pursue any and all answers to what happened in order to ensure safety moving forward," he said.
Sheriff needed?
The Tesla Model S, cruising on "Autopilot," failed to detect a crossing tractor-trailer against a bright sky, killing the driver – who it later emerged had kept his hands off the wheel for extended periods of time despite automated warnings not to do so.
Investigators at the US National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the Tesla crash was the combination of "a truck driver's failure to yield the right of way and a car driver's inattention due to overreliance on vehicle automation."
Tempe Police Sergeant Ronald Elcock spoke to the media after a female pedestrian was struck and killed by a Uber self-driving sport utility vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, US, March 19, 2018 .
Autonomous-vehicle technology has been touted as having potential to save fuel, ease congestion, and to save thousands of lives by avoiding accidents due to human error.
As with the fatal Tesla crash, however, the deadly Uber accident is likely to stoke concerns that the industry is moving too fast.
Google-owned Waymo this month began using its self-driving trucks to haul cargo bound for the internet giant's data centers in Georgia, while rival Uber announced the use of self-driving semi trucks as part of an on-demand trucking service in Arizona.
Autonomous-vehicle technology has been touted as having potential to save fuel, ease congestion, and save thousands of lives.
In September, US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released new guidelines that permit more testing of self-driving cars.
But America's non-profit Consumer Watchdog has warned that roads are being turned "into private laboratories for robot cars with no regard for our safety."
The group on Monday called for a nationwide moratorium on testing self-driving cars on public roads while investigators figure out what went wrong in the Uber accident.
"Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place," Watchdog technology project director John Simpson said in a statement.
"When there's no sheriff in town, people get killed."
(BBC&AFP&USATODAY )