The company had largely suspended testing following a fatal accident in Arizona. Now robotic cars are on the road again in Uber’s hometown.
San Francisco Uber is testing his robot cars for the first time in years in his hometown San Francisco. Initially, only two vehicles are to be on the road on Tuesday in autonomous operation – and only in daylight, as a spokesman for the transportation service provider told the technology blog “The Verge”.
About two years ago, during a night-time test drive in Arizona, an over-robot car hit and killed a woman crossing the road. It was the first and so far the only known fatal accident involving a self-propelled car.
U.S. accident investigators concluded that the software had identified the pedestrian who pushed a bicycle beside her too late. Until now, Uber’s autonomous driving with his re-equipped SUVs has been very limited in Pittsburgh.
In San Francisco, Uber also had other difficulties. Only a few days after the grandly celebrated start of the robot car drives at the end of 2017, the company had to take the cars off the road again. Uber had refused to apply for a license to test self-propelled cars, and the authorities unceremoniously canceled the fleet’s license plates. Now Uber is driving with an official permit.
photo from freepik
