Uber has always been a company that has promoted autonomous driving cars and technology. But its plans of continued testing of its fleet of self-driving vehicles was abruptly put on hold as one its test vehicles, a Volvo SUV, crashed in Arizona, USA. There were no serious injuries reported. As a precaution, the company has stopped testing its autonomous vehicles for the time being, in the state of Arizona, USA and also suspended its testing activities in Pittsburgh as well. Reports suggest that there was a person behind the wheel at the time of the crash but no other passengers.
(Waymo, Google's self-driving car project has accused Uber of Intellectual Property Theft)Local police reports say that the Uber autonomous vehicle was not at fault. There was another car coming from the opposite side, which failed to yield space for the Uber SUV causing it to crash and land on its side.
Unfortunately, the crash comes at a rather bad time as some Uber employees from its 'Otto' division (self-driving trucks) have been accused of intellectual property theft from Waymo, Google's self-driving car project. A legal battle is already underway between the two companies and the outcome can have a strong bearing on Uber's future of its self-driven cars. Also, a string of high-profile executives have quit the company in recent months. USA is one of those countries where more and more manufacturers are testing their autonomous vehicles. Last year, the Transport Department of USA had released a 15-point guideline for manufactures of autonomous cars.
