Uber Lays Off 300 Arizona Workers From Autonomous Car Program After Fatal Crash

Uber has closed its autonomous car program in Arizona months after a fatal crash happened there, laying off 300 workers in the process.

In March, Elaine Herzberg, 49, was killed while walking across the road with her bicycle. She was struck by one of Uber’s self-driving Volvo XC90s, which had an engineer behind the wheel at the time.

In the wake of the incident, Uber paused all its autonomous driving programs, but Jalopnik reports that the company will resume its testing in Pittsburgh once a federal investigation into the crash is completed.

In a statement, Uber said: “We’re committed to self-driving technology, and we look forward to returning to public roads in the near future. In the meantime, we remain focused on our top-to-bottom safety review, having brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture.”

Uber’s Arizona self-driving program started in 2016. At the time, Governer Doug Ducey welcomed the testing, saying he wanted to remove “bureaucracy and more regulation” from advancing the technology. However, following the crash he suspended Uber from continuing its program, calling footage of the fatal incident “disturbing and alarming”.