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posted by chromas on Thursday May 24 2018, @11:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL dept.

Uber ends self-driving operation in Arizona

Uber has shuttered its self-driving testing program in Arizona and laid off close to 300 workers there — most of them test drivers, or "vehicle operators" — two months after one of its autonomous cars killed a pedestrian, the company said on Wednesday. The company had been testing its self-driving technology in the state since 2016, but halted operations in the wake of the March crash. The company's testing was also indefinitely suspended by the Arizona governor's office.

[...] Uber says it still plans to restart its self-driving operations in other locations (like Pittsburgh or San Francisco) once the investigations into the Arizona crash are complete. But in those locations, Uber will "drive in a much more limited way," according to an internal email obtained by ArsTechnica.


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 25 2018, @12:19AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @12:19AM (#683823) Journal

    All the professional software dev projects I ever worked on had a test environment and you don't go live until the serious bugs are discovered and worked out.

    And that's just a crummy web site that doesn't kill people.

    The essential difference between the two: a buggy web site will kill profit, a buggy self-driving car will only kill people that aren't its passengers (killing passengers would be the kind of profit-killing bug).

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Friday May 25 2018, @05:51AM (1 child)

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @05:51AM (#683906) Journal

    a buggy web site will kill profit

    I am pretty sure that the court costs and payout of this case will result in quite a bit of profit lost for the company. Well into the millions.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 25 2018, @06:09AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @06:09AM (#683908) Journal

      FYI [reuters.com]

      Uber reached the settlement with the daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, who died at age 49 after being hit by the Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. The settlement presumably includes a cash payment, but no details were provided by either Uber or the family's attorney.

      So no courts and the settlement was quick enough so I feel that it wasn't something that threatened Uber financial status.

      Profit lost? Uber didn't have a ready-to-market self-driving car, so the lost profit was, at best, long term potential profit - things like this happens when you run a R&D project which can turn sour at any time.

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford