RIDE-SHARING giant Uber said yesterday it is suspending the use of self-driving cars after one of the vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in the US state of Arizona.

The Uber vehicle was in autonomous mode, with an operator behind the wheel, when it hit a woman walking in the street in the city of Tempe on Sunday, said the San Francisco-based company.

The victim was hospitalised, and later died from her injuries.

“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” an Uber spokesman told AFP.

“We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation into this incident.”

Uber said it has temporarily halted the use of self-driving cars for testing or customer rides in Tempe, Pittsburgh, Toronto and San Francisco.

Tempe is one of just two cities – along with Pittsburgh – where the ride-sharing firm has been using autonomous vehicles as part of its regular service.

The vehicle operator in the driver’s seat was the only person in the car when the accident occurred, said Uber.

The car was in police hands yesterday.

Sunday’s accident was the first fatal self-driving car crash involving a pedestrian.

The first deadly self-driving car accident was reported in mid-2016, and involved a Tesla.

As with the fatal Tesla crash, the deadly Uber accident is likely to stoke concerns that the industry is moving too fast.

Google-owned Waymo this month began using its self-driving trucks to haul cargo bound for the internet giant’s data centres in Georgia, while rival Uber announced the use of self-driving semi trucks as part of an on-demand trucking service in Arizona.

Last September, US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released new guidelines that permit more testing of self-driving cars.

But, America’s non-profit Consumer Watchdog has warned that roads are being turned “into private laboratories for robot cars with no regard for our safety”.

The group yesterday called for a nationwide moratorium on testing self-driving cars on public roads, while investigators figure out what went wrong in the Uber accident.

“Arizona has been the Wild West of robot-car testing, with virtually no regulations in place,” Watchdog technology project director John Simpson said in a statement.

“When there’s no sheriff in town, people get killed.” – AFP, March 20, 2018.