In the aftermath of a fatal crash earlier this week between an Uber self-driving vehicle and a pedestrian, industry leaders and city officials across the country are putting their own autonomous-vehicle testing programs on hold so they can ponder the effect on the vehicles’ onboard safety drivers and consider the road ahead for this fledgling technology.
On Sunday night in Tempe, Arizona, an Uber self-driving vehicle operating in autonomous mode struck Elaine Herzberg, 49, who had stepped into the roadway. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Uber has since suspended its self-driving-vehicle testing across its operations in Tempe, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Toronto.
Although it had no role in the deadly incident (the Uber test vehicle was a Volvo XC90), Toyota said Tuesday it will ?temporarily pause” testing of its self-driving systems on public roads in Michigan and California. The stoppage involves Toyota test vehicles operating with the company?s Chauffeur autonomous-mode capability, which handles responsibility for all driving tasks. ?We feel the incident in Tempe may have an emotional effect on our test drivers,? Toyota said in a statement. ?This timeout is meant to give them time to come to a sense of balance about the inherent risks of their jobs. We are monitoring the situation and plan to resume testing at an appropriate time.?
Manufacturers were not the only ones suspending autonomous-vehicle testing. As in Arizona, Massachusetts permi...