Crash leads to Uber suspending self-driving cars testing

Uber has suspended testing of self-driving cars after a US crash.

The ride sharing service has taken its fleet off roads in Arizona while it investigates a crash there that left one of its SUVs sitting on its side, Stuff says, quoting The Washington Post.

Police in Tempe, Arizona, were called to a crash on Saturday (New Zealand time) to find that the Uber SUV was hit when another vehicle failed to give way, according to the Tempe Police Department.

No serious injuries were reported.

The accident again raises questions about the safety of autonomous driving technology and how it will interact with other drivers on the road.

There was a person behind the wheel at the time of the accident, but an Uber spokeswoman says the vehicle was in self-driving mode and that there were no backseat riders, Stuff reports.

The company suspended test vehicles in Pittsburgh too where its autonomous cars also pick up passengers, and San Francisco, where it does not.

Uber has been moving to put its self-driving vehicles on the road with passengers in the backseat.

As a precaution, the vehicles have a “safety engineer” who can take control if necessary.

Others that have been developing the technology longer, including Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, have been hesitant to put ordinary people in their cars without further testing.

Many expect self-driving vehicles will enter the market through ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, which tend to be more popular in urban environments where autonomous cars will be most useful.

Automobile and technology companies alike are putting billions of dollars into self-drive technology with the idea that one day our cars will no longer need human drivers.

In the meantime, vehicles equipped with self-driving capabilities will share the road with human motorists.