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Here is the potential Impact of Uber's self-driving car crash
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Uber has halted all tests of its self-driving cars after one of the vehicles hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona late Sunday night, in the first known fatality in the US from a driverless vehicle, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Prior to suspending all tests, the company was trialing several dozen self-driving cars in Tempe, Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto. The car involved, like all of the ride-hailing giant's autonomous cars it's testing on public roads, had a safety operator behind the wheel, and the vehicle was in self-driving mode during the time of the crash. The ride-hailing giant says it's cooperating with law enforcement and regulatory officials investigating the incident and is conducting its own internal review of the crash.
Even if its car is found not to be at fault, the incident will likely strike a major blow to Uber's ambitions in the autonomous mobility space. Uber's highly publicized autonomous car project has been mired in controversy for at least the past year.
The company settled its year-long legal battle with Waymo over its 2016 purchase of autonomous trucking startup Otto last year, and in early 2017, fought with California regulators over its right to test cars in the state. Even if officials determine the Uber car wasn't at fault in the crash, the latest in a series of negative events, combined with the company's other highly-publicized issues, could damage consumers' perceptions of its self-driving car safety.
That, in turn, could dent Uber's ability to peel customers away from competing companies like Waymo and GM when it launches an autonomous ride-hailing service, which could be as soon as next year, especially since Waymo and GM are also already trialing cars on public roads in multiple geographies.
Moreover, as long as the company refrains from testing its cars on public roads, it will be unable to collect the mapping data it likely needs to plug into the cars' algorithms and deploy them commercially sometime next year. The incident may also hurt Uber's ability to attract partners and suppliers, many of which could be dissuaded from working with a company that might have such a negative public perception.
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