A self-driving car from Uber Technologies Inc. struck a woman who died Monday in Tempe, Ariz., in what is the first known fatality of a pedestrian from a driverless vehicle.
The woman, Elaine Herzberg, 49 was crossing the road outside of the crosswalk at about 10 p.m. when she was hit. The Uber vehicle, which included a human operator to assist at the wheel was in autonomous driving mode. Herzberg was transported to a local area hospital where she passed away from her injuries.
The accident comes just weeks after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey updated the autonomous vehicle executive order, “Arizona is recognized as a leader in welcoming new technology and innovations. Since the executive order, Arizona has become home to testing for many of the technology and automotive companies that are leading the innovation into the new frontier.”
Following the accident, Uber is temporarily pulling its self-driving cars off the roads in Tempe, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto, where it had been testing them.
“Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona,” tweeted Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, “We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”