Uber disabled emergency braking in self-driving car that struck a woman in Arizona
The Volvo XC90 is typically equipped with automatic emergency braking systems designed to prevent frontal crashes, but Uber said emergency braking manoeuvres were not enabled while the vehicle was under computer control
Uber had disabled an emergency braking system in a self-driving vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Arizona in March after it failed to identify the pedestrian, the US National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released on Thursday.
The report said the modified 2017 Volvo XC90’s radar systems observed the pedestrian six seconds before impact but “the self-driving system software classified the pedestrian as an unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle.”
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At 1.3 seconds before impact, the self-driving system determined emergency braking was needed. But Uber said emergency braking manoeuvres were not enabled while the vehicle was under computer control to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behaviour.
The Volvo XC90 is typically equipped with automatic emergency braking systems designed to prevent frontal crashes.
Uber Technologies Inc, which voluntarily suspended testing in the aftermath of the crash in the city of Tempe – the first death involving a fully self-driving vehicle – said on Wednesday it would shut down its Arizona self-driving testing programme and focus on limited testing in Pittsburgh and two cities in California.
[The car] was far too dangerous to be tested off a closed track