“The vehicle involved is one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles,” the Tempe police said in a statement. “It was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, with a vehicle operator behind the wheel.”
The victim was outside the crosswalk when she was struck by the Uber SUV. “She was transported to a local area hospital where she passed away from her injuries,” said Tempe police, reports AZFamily.com.
Autonomous mode means the vehicle is driving on its own, even though there may be a human behind the steering wheel as a safeguard. The company has been testing autonomous vehicles in Arizona, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Canada and other areas. Uber said it has stopped testing the vehicles throughout the United States and Canada.
Uber officials released the following statement on Twitter: “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.” The company also said they were fully cooperating with local officials during the investigation.
An Uber spokesperson also added that no passengers were in the back seat and one vehicle operator was in the front seat at the time of the accident.
Sgt. Ronald Elcock said in an email to Metro News Canada that the accident happened overnight but did not say whether it occurred Sunday night or Monday morning.
Additionally, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) media relations division tweeted Monday that the agency will be involved in determining what happened.
