Uber revamps its autonomous car testing after a woman was killed in a fatal car accident

After a woman was hit by an Uber self-driving car in Arizona, the state government banned the company from testing its autonomous car on public roads there. In the four months since she died in the fatal accident, Uber robo-cars are staying off the public areas. It has withdrawn all its autonomous vehicles from the roads in Pittsburgh, where its R&D center for self-driving cars is located. Also, the company has let its robo-car testing permit to lapse in California.

Uber’s self-driving Chief Eric Meyhofer’s announcement about Uber returning its self-driving cars testing on public roads in Pittsburgh may not be received well by the public considering the past mishaps, but this time it has a catch. The vehicle will now be in the manual mode, for training, mapping and monitoring purpose. Uber is also undergoing a safety review with the help of aviation expert Christopher Hart and former National Transportation Safety Board chair.

The aim of the review is to investigate whether the technology is capable enough to be driven on its own on public roads while preventing any sort of accidents in the future. As per the preliminary report of the review, the car couldn’t properly recognize the woman crossing the road. As it understands the risk of life involved, Uber’s latest announcement seems to cope up with the industry’s safety standards.

Although the self-driving car developers have a notion that testing on a public road is the only option to expose the vehicles to all kinds of real-time obstacles, this can be very dangerous. It is ironical: the technology that aims to eliminate the need for human drivers first needs to understand how humans drive!