Cleveland, Ohio – A self-driving car has killed a person – the second fatal accident involving an autonomous vehicle in the technology’s history, and the first not to involve the person in the self-driving vehicle.
An autonomous Volvo XC90, operated by ridesharing company Uber, struck a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, as she was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk. She later died from her injuries.
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” Uber officials said. “We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”
Uber is pausing operation of its self-driving test fleets in Phoenix, Arizona (Tempe is a Phoenix suburb); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California; and Toronto, Canada, while it investigates the accident.
Tempe Police Department spokespeople confirmed that the car was in autonomous mode at the time of the accident. Arizona law, and most state laws, require self-driving cars to have a human behind the steering wheel to take over in emergencies. A person was behind the wheel of the Uber Volvo Sunday night, but did not override the vehicle.
There were no passengers in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Autonomous technology companies have been lobbying for more real-world testing of self-driving systems, saying they need more data to perfect the driving process. Many states have crafted laws to encourage test fleets, with California recently introducing rules that would let autonomous vehicles operate without a driver behind the wheel.
The Arizona pedestrian fatality is the second known death involving a self-driving vehicle. In 2016, a man driving a Tesla Model S in autopilot mode hit the side of a tractor trailer. At the Time, Tesla officials stressed that drivers need to be ready to take control for autonomous systems at all times, even while in autopilot mode.
Nearly 40,000 people die per year in auto accidents in the United States (37,461 in 2016 according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), and most autonomous vehicle advocates tout the technology’s promise as a way of greatly reducing that number. Theoretically, removing the human element from driving should make road transportation safer. However, proving that theory will require significant amounts of road-based testing and the possibility of future accidents.
Updated 3/23/2018: Police have released video of the accident recorded by the self-driving Uber. The video shows the safety drive frequently looking downward, toward her lap, rather than the road. The front-facing camera shows the pedestrian appearing suddenly as she crossed the street away from crosswalks. While the video stops before the impact, the footage can still be disturbing.
About the author: Robert Schoenberger is the editor of Today’s Motor Vehicles and a contributor to Today’s Medical Developments and Aerospace Manufacturing and Design. He has written about the automotive industry for more than 17 years at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; and The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi.