Uber has suspended its autonomous driving program after one of its vehicles was involved in a collision across the weekend – no-one was hurt.
UBER HAS CALLED A halt to its autonomous driving program after one of its driverless vehicles was involved in a collision on the weekend. Images of an Uber-operated Volvo XC90 on its side popped up on Twitter via a US news agency that sells content to other news agencies, Fresco News.
According to local police officers, the collision was caused when the driver of a second vehicle “failed to yield” to the Uber vehicle. The vehicles crashed into each other, causing the Volvo to roll onto its side. No-one was hurt in the collision and Uber announced it was suspending its autonomous vehicle trial in Arizona, Pittsburgh and San Francisco while the exact cause of the collision was investigated.
In an email to news outlets, Uber said there were two safety drivers in the vehicle at the time of the collision, in both the driver and passenger seat, but that the vehicle was in self-driving mode at the time of the collision.
Uber announced its partnership with Volvo later last year, with Volvo saying: “The latest cars to be used in San Francisco have been built by Volvo and sold to Uber, after which Uber’s own self-driving hardware and software package has been added, most visibly in the roof-mounted control apparatus”.
The partnership with Volvo and Uber is worth around $300 million, “The promise of self-driving ride sharing is becoming a reality,” Mårten Levenstam, vice president product planning at Volvo Cars said at the time the partnership was announced. “Volvo is proud to be at the forefront of the latest developments in the automotive world alongside our partners at Uber.”
UPDATE: According to reports out of the US, Uber has resumed its self-driving car project after one of its vehicles was involved in a collision last weekend.
