Toyota worried about impact of Uber accident on its drivers
Japanese car giant Toyota Motor has halted tests of its “Chauffeur” autonomous driving system on US public roads after an Uber Technologies vehicle operating in autonomous mode under the supervision of a human safety driver struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona.
“Because we feel the incident may have an emotional effect on our test drivers, we have decided to temporarily pause our Chauffeur mode testing on public roads,” spokesman Brian Lyons said in an emailed statement, referring to its hands-off testing mode.
The carmaker said it could not speculate on the cause of the crash or what it may mean to the future of the nascent automated driving sector.
Toyota had been doing on-road testing with self-driving vehicles in Michigan and California, Lyons said.
The company has kept the number of vehicles small so they could be rapidly updated as the technology advances, he said, declining to name the specific number of self-driving vehicles in operation.
Before the incident, Toyota has been working on a plan to team up with Uber on autonomous driving.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive officer of Uber, posted a photo on Twitter with Toyota President Akio Toyoda at the automaker’s headquarters last month, though details on the collaboration have been slim.
Lyons said on Tuesday that its self-driving unit, Toyota Research Institute, “does not have first-hand information on the tragic traffic fatality.”
A Toyota spokesman said last week the carmaker hadn’t yet decided whether to buy Uber’s driverless-car software.
On the other hand, Britain is pushing ahead with tests of self-driving cars on public roads despite mounting public concern over safety after the Uber accident which killed a pedestrian.
Roads minister Jesse Norman has pledged to keep the UK in the vanguard of developing autonomous technology, recently confirming an overhaul of road laws to include self-driving cars.
