Uber has now groundedits entire autonomous test fleetin the U.S., following an accidentin Arizona which left one of its Volvo SUVs flipped on its side earlier today. The car was in self-driving mode at the time of the incident.
As we reportedearlier, the company suspended the pilotin Arizona in the immediate aftermath of the crash. But it has now said its grounded its entire autonomous fleet so also in the two otherregions where it is currently piloting theself-driving cars: Pittsburg and San Francisco.
Our vehicles in Arizona remain grounded while we continue our investigation. Our vehicles are grounded in Pittsburgh and SF today as well, an Uber spokeswoman told us.
Four hours ago the same spokeswoman told us the fleet was grounded in Arizona but did not mention the other two locations so it appears the company has decided to expand the suspension in the past few hours.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the Arizona grounding will last as long as the duration of the investigation into the crashbut added that the wider suspension does not have a set timing so its not clear how long all self-driving Ubers will be parked. Presumably at least for the rest of today.
Although Uber pulled the autonomous vehicles outofSF lastDecember, after a disputewith local regulators, a smaller fleet returned to Californias roads earlier this month after it wasgranted a permit to test two self-driving cars. InPhoenix and Pittsburg Uber has been testing12 cars apiece.
All Uberstest vehiclesincludea human driver sitting in the drivers seat so they are in a position to take over driving should that be necessary.
In the Arizona incident, in which no one has been reported seriously injured, the WSJreports local police saying Ubers self-driving technology was not responsiblefor the accident insteada regular vehicle failed to yield.
As we noted earlier, the crashis just the latest in a string of bad news stories for Uber including severalrelated toits self-driving technology but alsobeyond that, with accusations the company has a problem withsystemic sexisminits corporateculture.
That run of bad publicity might explain why its taken the decision to err on the side of caution in this instance and ground all its autonomous vehicles, despite the tech notbeing accused of culpability.
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