“With negative impacts on the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, the degradation of the earth’s land surface through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction,” said Robert Scholes of South Africa, co-chair of the assessment with Luca Montanarella of Italy. 

Any litigation that arises from the accident, the first fatality involving a fully autonomous vehicle, could pit the ride-hailing service against technology suppliers and the vehicle’s manufacturer, legal experts said. It could also provide a window into confidential indemnification agreements that companies developing self-driving car systems may have reached to shield themselves legally.

UBER said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto.“This tragic accident underscores why we need to be exceptionally cautious when testing and deploying autonomous vehicle technologies on public roads,” said Democratic Senator Edward Markey, a member of the transportation committee, in a statement.