Autonomous Vehicle Safety Questioned in Federal Ruling
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) called Uber’s autonomous vehicle safety culture ineffective in a ruling handed down on November 19. The ruling was in reference to an accident that occurred in March 2018 when one of Uber’s test vehicles hit and killed a woman crossing the road. Robert Sumwalt, Chairman of the Board, said that Uber relied on the backup driver in this case rather than using an emergency braking system built into the vehicle. He also said that Uber did not monitor its cars on a continuous basis, nor did their vehicles have the automatic braking ability. The NTSB urged government agencies to become involved in regulating autonomous vehicle testing in the United States.