Uber restarts program after pause

Arizona accident led to shutdown of self-driving cars

An Uber self-driving SUV is rolled onto its side after a collision in Tempe., Ariz., on Friday in this photo provided by the Tempe Police Department.
An Uber self-driving SUV is rolled onto its side after a collision in Tempe., Ariz., on Friday in this photo provided by the Tempe Police Department.

NEW YORK -- Uber said Tuesday it is resuming its self-driving car program in Arizona and Pittsburgh after it was suspended following a crash over the weekend.

The company had also grounded self-driving cars in San Francisco over the weekend but they resumed operating earlier Monday. The difference between the California program compared with the ones in Arizona and Pennsylvania is that California does not allow passengers to ride in the vehicles.

The company said Monday that it paused the operations over the weekend to better understand what happened in Arizona, but feels confident in returning the cars to the road.

There were no serious injuries reported in the accident in Tempe, Ariz., on Friday night. Police said the self-driving Uber SUV was obeying the law while the human driver of the other car was cited for a moving violation.

The crash was caused by another vehicle failing to yield to the self-driving Uber while making a left turn about 6:25 p.m. Friday, Sgt. Josie Montenegro of the Tempe Police Department wrote in an email. The two vehicles collided and the Uber rolled onto its side. There were no serious injuries, and police cited the driver who failed to yield.

Uber said it is investigating the incident and that there were no passengers in the back seat of the self-driving car.

Multiple automakers and technology companies are testing fleets of self-driving vehicles. In nearly all cases, the cars have backup drivers who can take the wheel in an emergency.

Testing hasn't been accident-free. Waymo -- a division of Google -- has been testing self-driving cars since 2009 and has driven them more than 2 million miles. Last year, Waymo reported 13 accidents involving its fleet in California, which requires companies testing autonomous vehicles to report any accidents. Most of the accidents were minor and weren't caused by Waymo's vehicles. But in February 2016, a Waymo test car struck a public bus near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. There were no injuries reported.

Cruise Automation -- a self-driving startup owned by General Motors Co. -- and Nissan Motor Co. also reported fender benders involving self-driving cars in California within the past year.

Last year, a driver of a semi-autonomous Tesla -- which is different from a self-driving car -- was killed with the car's Autopilot system engaged.

The crash in Tempe was another hiccup in what has been a bumpy rollout of Uber's self-driving cars. Uber earlier this month received a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test two self-driving cars on public roads in the state, capping an intense fight with regulators over whether the permit was necessary. The ride-hailing company originally had refused to apply for the permit, causing the DMV to force Uber's self-driving cars off the streets of San Francisco.

Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press and by Marisa Kendall of the San Jose Mercury News.

Business on 03/29/2017

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