Uber Technologies Inc. vowed to make public more safety information regarding its self-driving cars after the National Transportation Safety Board placed partial blame for a fatal 2018 crash on the company’s policies.
The company made the pledge in an update to its voluntary safety assessment, filed Friday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It marked the first major attempt by Uber to allay criticism of its autonomous driving program since the NTSB board reached its conclusions regarding a Tempe, Arizona, crash in 2018 believed to be the first fatal pedestrian accident involving a self-driving vehicle.
Uber Technologies Inc. vowed to make public more safety information regarding its self-driving cars after the National Transportation Safety Board placed partial blame for a fatal 2018 crash on the company’s policies.
The company made the pledge in an update to its voluntary safety assessment, filed Friday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It marked the first major attempt by Uber to allay criticism of its autonomous driving program since the NTSB board reached its conclusions regarding a Tempe, Arizona, crash in 2018 believed to be the first fatal pedestrian accident involving a self-driving vehicle.
The NTSB voted in 2019 that the probable cause of the crash was “the failure of the vehicle operator to monitor the environment and the operation of the automated driving system because she was visually distracted throughout her trip by her personal cellphone.”
The board also cited three shortcomings by Uber: the company’s inadequate safety risk assessment procedures; ineffective oversight of vehicle operators; and lack of adequate mechanisms to address complacency by operators as the cars drove themselves.Voluntary Approach
Safety advocates have criticized the Trump administration’s voluntary approach to self-driving car regulation. They say the voluntary reports submitted so far resemble slick marketing brochures instead of stringent regulatory filings.
The Tempe crash roiled the debate about self-driving cars in Washington, where legislation was being considered to drastically increase the number of such cars auto manufacturers would have been able to put on public roads. Uber suspended all testing of self-driving cars for four months before resuming testing in Pittsburgh in July 2018. The company closed its driverless testing program in Arizona and let go almost 300 workers there in May 2018.
Consumer advocates have seized on the incident to urge tougher regulations of self-driving cars.
“It’s nice that Uber has decided this is the right time to update its so-called report, but a consumer-focused agency would have long ago mandated all driverless vehicle manufacturers regularly submit useful safety details regarding their public road tests,” said Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.