Uber is completely halting its tests of self-driving car technology in its home state of California following a fatal crash in Arizona involving a pedestrian earlier this month the first death caused by an autonomous vehicle.
The company has decided not to reapply for a permit to test autonomous vehicles with the California DMV in the wake of the crash, a spokesperson told Business Insider, ending its tests in the state for the immediate future.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: "We proactively
suspended our self-driving operations, including in California, immediately following the Tempe incident. Given this, we decided to not reapply for a California DMV permit with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate on public roads in the immediate future."
On Monday, Arizona's governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber's self-driving car program in the state, calling it an "unquestionable failure" to comply with safety expectations.
The fatal crash coul be a serious crisis for Uber. If its vehicles are found to have been at fault in the accident, the consequences could be a major threat to its self-driving car ambitions, which ex-CEO Travis Kalanick once said were pivotal to the company's long-term survival.
One of its cars in autonomous mode struck a pedestrian crossing the road while pushing a bicycle, and she died of her injuries.
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