A self-driving Uber has killed a woman in what might be the first pedestrian death by an autonomous car


A woman in Tempe, Arizona, has died after being struck by an Uber car that was operating in "autonomous mode," potentially making her the first pedestrian to be killed by an unmanned vehicle, The New York Times' Daisuke Wakabayashi reports. A human driver was in the car when the collision occurred Sunday night around 10 p.m. MT. The woman was apparently outside of the crosswalk when she was hit by the car, Arizona's ABC 15 reports.
Uber is "fully cooperating" with the investigation, a spokeswoman told the Times. Uber has suspended self-driving car tests in Tempe as well as other cities it operates the vehicles in, including Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto.
In 2016, the operator of a self-driving Tesla was killed while the car was in autonomous mode after apparently ignoring repeated warnings to take the wheel.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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