The news of Uber’s self-driving car accident has meant a knock to the program as well as to the self-drive industry. Uber has had to suspend their self-drive programme in light of the crash that occurred in Arizona. Uber has already had to deal with several challenges with this new technology programme so another bump in the road isn’t good news for the private taxi company. Uber has had to deal with accusations of sexism within their management as well as reports of harassment. The business has also had to face a patent-based lawsuit surrounding the self-drive technology used by Uber, with Google claiming that the technology had been stolen by a former engineer for the company Waymo.

This negative news coverage does little to help the advancements of the autonomous vehicle advancements that are happening. However, it has been mentioned that this technology might be better suited to other areas before being applied to the road. We have already reported on companies looking at autonomous vehicles and thinking that for the time being the Government could be missing opportunities to apply the technology to the maritime and agricultural industries. Obviously Uber is an American country but seen as though the technology that will eventually mean that we could have self-driven cars on the road still needs two human safety divers, it may be worth looking into other areas while the dust settles from the news of the Arizona crash.

Uber had to move their pilot scheme to Arizona after refusing to buy a permit for testing the self-driving cars that was required in California. The accident was caused by the driver of a second vehicle who apparently went through a red light and failed to give way to the autonomous vehicle, which was turning. Thankfully no one was seriously injured but it is clear that there is still a long way to go before autonomous vehicles are a common sight on our roads.

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