According to latest reports, ride hailing giant Uber has pulled its pilot program self-driving cars after a vehicle equipped with the autonomous driving technology was involved in an accident on Arizona roadway.
The crash marks the latest relating a self-driving vehicle operated by one of several companies testing with autonomous vehicles, caused no serious injuries, Uber said.
Despite that, Uber is suspending its driverless cars used in a pilot program in Arizona, Pittsburgh and San Francisco awaiting the outcome of inquiry into the crash on Friday in Tempe, Arizona.
Reports said, The accident happened when the driver of a second car “failed to yield” to the Uber car while making a turn, said Josie Montenegro, a spokeswoman for the Tempe Police Department.
“We are continuing to look into this incident,” an Uber spokesperson said in an email.
“The vehicles collided, causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto its side. There were no serious injuries.”
Meanwhile according to Uber, two safety drivers were in the front seats of their car, which was in self-driving mode at the time of the crash, a standard requisite for its self-driving vehicles. There was no one on the back seat though.
On the launching of the pilot program in Pittsburgh last year, Uber categorically said that driverless cars “require human intervention in many conditions, including bad weather”. The company also said that the new technology had the prospective to cut the number of traffic accidents in the country.
This accident is not the first time a self-driving car has been involved in a collision. Last year in Florida a driver of a Tesla car in use in autopilot mode had fatal collision with a truck. Furthermore a self-driving car used by Google has also had an accident last year in Mountain View, California, striking a bus while trying to navigate around an obstruction.
