Self-Driving Car Kills Female Pedestrian In U.S.‎

Ride-sharing giant Uber said Monday it is suspending use of self-driving carsafter 

one of the vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in the US state of Arizona. Naija 

News Learnt

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 victim was hospitalized and

 later died from her injuries.

 “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” an Uber spokesperson told AFP. “We are fully 

cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”

Uber said it had temporarily halted its use of self-driving cars for testing or 

customer rides in Tempe, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and San Francisco.Tempe is one 

of just two cities — along with Pittsburgh — where the ride-sharing firm has been

 using autonomous vehicles as part of its regular passenger.

The fatal accident has been deemed the first involving an autonomous vehicle and a pedestrian in the United States, a development that could deal a heavy blow to the new technology.

The police described Ms. Herzberg as a homeless woman, but did not immediately

 clarify whether she had any form of impairment prior to the accident. She was 

initially unconscious after the accident, but soon died by the time she arrived at the hospital.

Uber’s operators are supposed to take charge of an autonomous vehicle if it can’t negotiate a traffic situation and to drive manually in locations where the car is not programmed to drive itself.

The police said the vehicle that killed Ms. Herzberg has cameras and lidar to detect objects and another camera that focuses on occupants. Lidar is similar to a radar

 detector but uses light instead of radio waves to detect objects.

“It will definitely assist in the investigation, without a doubt,” Tempe police 

spokesperson Ronald Elcock said at the press briefing.

However, There are preliminary indications that the Uber vehicle may not be at 

fault in the accident, according to latest media reports.

 “I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident, either,”

 Sylvia Moir, a police chief in Arizona, was quoted as saying by San Francisco Chronicle Monday night.

The crash comes amidst growing concerns by some automotive experts that

 self-driving cars should not be backed by legislation as yet. The concerns intensified 

after a driver was killed while testing a Tesla Model S in an autonomous mode in

 Florida, U.S.

The vehicle failed to recognise a truck across the road ahead. U.S. investigators 

found that the vehicle was to blame for the accident and recommended that the technology needs more improvements to be safe for human use.