Uber wants to resume self-driving biltests on public roads

DETROIT (AP) – Almost eight months after one of its autonomous test vehicles beat and killed an Arizona pedestrian, Uber wants to continue testing on public roads.

The company has filed an application with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to test in Pittsburgh and has issued a long safety report that promises to put two human backup drivers in each vehicle and take a number of other precautions to make the vehicles safe.

Corporate employees acknowledge that they have a long way to go to regain public trust after March 18 crash in Tempe, Arizona, which killed Elaine Herzberg, 49, as she crossed a darker road off the lines of a crossroads.

Police said that Uber's backup driver in the autonomous Volvo SUV was streaming television on "The Voice" on the phone and looking down before crashing. The National Transport Safety Authority said the autonomous Volvo operating system discovered Herzberg approx. six seconds before it hit her but did not stop because the system used to automatically use brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been deactivated. A Volvo emergency brake system had also been switched off.

"Our goal is to really work to regain that trust and work to help move the whole industry forward," said Noah Zych, Uber's system safety safety for self-propelled cars. "We think the right thing to do is be transparent and transparent about the things we do."

Among the other precautions, San Francisco-based Uber will keep the autonomous vehicle system engaged at all times and enable Volvo's automatic emergency braking system as a backup.

In addition, Uber demands more technical training and expertise among employees behind the vehicle's wheels, according to a 70-page safety report released by the company on Friday.

The report comes after the shipping company turned off autonomous vehicle tests to conduct an internal review of the security procedures, as well as an external review of the LeClairRyan risk management company.

Although the report covered all the most important bases, Uber should have even more given his self-driving car killed Herzberg, said Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant lawyer professor at the University of South Carolina who has studied the issues that affect autonomous vehicle lesson. In his most sharp omission, Uber did not accept responsibility for Herzberg's death ̵[ads1]1; the first involved a completely autonomous vehicle, he said.

"Frankly, I look for more from Uber than from other companies, and I suspect the governments can also be," said Walker Smith.

Under Pennsylvania's voluntary autonomous guidelines, the transport department has approved or denied Uber's application before 13 November, or to ask further questions.

Pennsylvania law currently does not allow testing of autonomous vehicles without human backup drivers. Googles Waymo is already transporting passengers in the Phoenix area without human drivers, and General Motors Cruise Automation expects to do it next year.

Pittsburgh officials can not legitimately prevent testing, but they are in security negotiations with Uber and four other entities that are authorized to test autonomous vehicles, "said Karina Ricks, City Director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

For example, the city wishes to limit the vehicle's speed of 25 miles per hour in urban areas, even if the specified speed is higher.

"Lower speed speeds give more time to the vehicle and the safety driver to respond and prevent a crash," said Ricks, who spoke the calls as fruitful.

Pittsburgh is home to the Ubers Autonomous Vehicle Development Center, making it a logical choice for the resumption of robotic tests.

"We cooperate with the city, with officials, and are very eager to ensure that we return to the road of self-driving mode in consultation and close cooperation with them," said Miriam Chaum, head of public policy for Uber's self-propelled vehicle

Later, it will discuss bringing their self-propelled cars back to Arizona, California and Toronto, Ontario, its other test sites. Arizona suspended the company's permission to test after the accident.