Uber Suspends Self-Driving Vehicle Testing Following Accident In Arizona (Other Vehicle’s Driver At Fault)

Uber has temporarily suspended its self-driving vehicle testing following an accident in Tempe, Arizona, according to recent reports. To be clear, though, Uber’s self-driving Volvo wasn’t at fault — the driver of a different vehicle (that caused the crash) failed to yield to the Uber Volvo.

Even with that caveat in mind, though, the specifics of the crash clearly deserve close investigation — could the crash have been avoided? Hopefully Uber actually does conduct a very in-depth investigation, one that yields useful insights, rather than just focus more on the PR value/needs of such an investigation.

Something else that should be noted here is that there were reportedly no serious injuries. Also notable is that there wasn’t an Uber passenger in the car at the time.

Engadget provides more: “The company has suspended both its Arizona testing and its Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania operations while it investigates what happened. The company has confirmed to Engadget that its vehicle was in self-driving mode at the time, but adds that there were no serious injuries on either side of the collision, and ‘no backseat passengers’ in Uber’s autonomous Volvo.”

While those who are skeptical of self-driving vehicle tech are likely to point to this news and use it as an example of why the tech will never be used on a large scale, something that should be remembered here is that all the tech has to do to prove itself viable is to exhibit lower crash rates than those of human drivers — quite a low bar. After all, how many self-driving cars are going to fail to yield when required (as the driver that caused this crash did)?

(As a side note, a fully electric SUV with the heavy battery pack under the floor isn’t very likely to flip like the Volvo in the image of the crash…)