This is the first-known fatality of a pedestrian involving a self-driving vehicle.
Uber has suspended its self-driving vehicle testing after one of its vehicles, a modified Volvo XC90, was involved in an accident with a pedestrian that resulted in a fatality.
According to the report on ABC15 in Arizona, a 49-year-old female was walking her bicycle across the road outside of a crosswalk on Sunday night when she was hit by the SUV. She later died at a hospital from her injuries.
The vehicle was driving in autonomous mode but had an operator behind the wheel. The Tempe Police are still investigating the accident.
This tragedy comes as more companies and automakers continue to develop autonomous vehicles, but it shows there are still scenarios where the technology is not fully able to anticipate and react to human actions.
This incident comes almost exactly one year after a self-driving Uber was involved in a three-car accident in Tempe. That Uber vehicle was not at fault, and the accident was found to be caused by another vehicle that failed to yield the right of way. As a precaution, Uber suspended its testing then, too.
In addition to Tempe, Uber is also testing its testing of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto, and all those markets have been suspended pending this investigation.
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