Uber self-driving vehicles involved in 37 crashes before fatal incident
Uber self-driving test vehicle that struck and killed an Arizona woman in 2018 had software flaws, the National Transportation Safety Board said as it disclosed the company's autonomous test vehicles were involved in 37 crashes in 18 months.
In this file photo, a self-driving Uber car can be seen at an intersection. Uber plans to purchase thousands of self-driving Volvos for its fleet once the technology is production-ready.
Uber autonomous test vehicles were involved in 37 crashes in the 18 months before a fatal March 2018 self-driving car incident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Tuesday.
The board said between September 2016 and March 2018, there were 37 crashes of Uber vehicles in autonomous mode at the time, including 33 that involved another vehicle striking test vehicles.
In one incident, the test vehicle struck a bent bicycle lane bollard that partially occupied the test vehicle’s lane of travel. In another incident, the operator took control to avoid a rapidly approaching oncoming vehicle that entered its lane of travel.
The vehicle operator steered away and struck a parked car. The NTSB will hold a probable cause hearing on the crash November 19.
The federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.
The US Department of Transportation is considering other voluntary guidelines that it says will help foster innovation.
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