Uber is shutting down its self-driving car program in Arizona. The move comes in the wake of a fatality that occurred in March, when an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode struck and killed a woman crossing a street.
AZ Centralfirst reported that about 200 employees at the Uber self-driving car program in Tempe, Arizona, were fired Wednesday morning. The full shutdown is expected to take a few weeks.
When the woman who was killed, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, there was a human test driver in the front seat, and in response Uber put its entire autonomous driving program on hold. Test drivers were apparently still being paid during the program freeze, at least until Wednesday's firings. Uber says it will provide career coaching and job help for its Arizona employees.
SEE ALSO:Self-driving Uber that killed pedestrian reportedly didn’t realize she was humanIn an internal email obtained by Ars Technica, Uber's head of advanced technologies, Eric Meyhofer, wrote about refocusing self-driving testing around its efforts in California and Pittsburgh. "We are not shutting down our self-driving program," he wrote. He mentioned resuming operations in Pittsburgh this summer. Uber is talking to San Francisco and Sacramento about testing in those cities.
In response to an query from Mashable, an Uber spokesperson emailed this statement: "We’re committed to self-driving technology and look forward to returning to public roads in the coming months. In the meantime, we remain focused on our top-to-bottom safety review, having brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture.”
Uber's ride-hailing and food delivery services in Arizona will continue as usual.
UPDATE: May 23, 2018, 12:59 p.m. PDT Uber noted that the number of employees affected by the shut-down in Arizona is closer to 300. Most of those workers are test drivers.
UPDATE: May 23, 2018, 3:49 p.m. PDTPittsburgh mayor William Peduto released a statement Wednesday afternoon highlighting that he was not told about Uber's plans to focus its autonomous efforts in his city. "I was forced to learn about it through social media reports," he said in the statement.
He also laid out "conditions" for Uber to resume testing in the Pennsylvania city. Those include a 25 mph max speed limit for self-driving vehicles and an in-app notification system for ride-hailing drivers speeding.
TopicsSelf-Driving CarsUber
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