Uber self-driving car accident caused by software flaw: report
Uber has reportedly found that software designed to ignore some obstacles in the road likely caused a deadly accident during a self-driving car test.
The Information reported on Monday that Uber’s self-driving vehicle successfully detected the pedestrian, but software developed by the ride-hailing company decided that the car didn’t need to react.
Autonomous cars are developed to detect objects that don’t require vehicles to stop or swerve, such as plastic bags or other light debris. Executives are said to believe that Uber’s software was tuned so that it would react less to objects in the road, but the adjustment went too far, according to The Information.
An Uber spokesperson said the company is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the March accident.
“Out of respect for that process and the trust we’ve built with NTSB, we can’t comment on the specifics of the incident,” the spokesperson said.
Uber quickly suspended tests of self-driving cars after a women was struck and killed by one of its vehicles in Tempe, Arizona. The company has launched a “top-to-bottom safety review” of its self-driving vehicle program following the incident. On Monday, the company announced that it hired former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise it on Uber’s safety culture.