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An Uber self-driving car navigating a test site in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood in May 2017.
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Pittsburgh not following Arizona's ban on self-driving vehicles

Tom M. Johnson/The New York Times

Pittsburgh not following Arizona's ban on self-driving vehicles

Eight days after a woman pushing her bike across the street was struck and killed by a self-driving Uber in Tempe, Ariz. — the first time an autonomous car has killed a pedestrian — Arizona officials have ordered the San Francisco-based ride-hailing behemoth to suspend all testing.

They contend that the company’s technology failed to meet the expectation that it would prioritize public safety. 

Pittsburgh won’t be enforcing the same ban for its Strip-District based operation.

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“I don’t think it’s practical to do it until the investigation has been completed in Arizona,” Mayor Bill Peduto said Tuesday afternoon.

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California’s Department of Motor Vehicles told Uber in a letter Tuesday that it will lose testing privileges after Saturday. If Uber wants to return, it will need a new permit and has to address investigations into the fatal crash in Arizona.

Uber voluntarily stalled its autonomous pilots in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto following the death of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing a bicycle across the road when an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode struck and killed her. The safety operator behind the wheel was looking down at the time of the crash.

“We proactively suspended self-driving operations in all cities immediately following the tragic incident last week,” an Uber spokesperson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We continue to help investigators in any way we can, and we'll keep a dialogue open with the governor's office to address any concerns they have.”

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Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona wrote in an email Monday to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that the incident last week illustrated an “unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation.”

The rebuke from the governor is a reversal from what has been an open-arms policy by that state, heralding a lack of regulation as an asset to lure autonomous vehicle testing — and tech jobs. Waymo, the self-driving car company spun out from Google, and General Motors-owned Cruise are also testing cars in Arizona.

Mr. Ducey said he was troubled by a video released by the Tempe Police Department that seemed to show that neither the Uber safety driver nor the autonomous vehicle detected the presence of a pedestrian in the road in the moments before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash with the local police, has not yet ruled whether the company was at fault.

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In Pittsburgh, Uber began offering passenger rides in self-driving cars in September 2016. Pilots in Tempe began February 2017.

Following last week’s fatal accident in Arizona, Uber representative Justin Kintz told Mr. Peduto that the company has been in communication with the City of Pittsburgh, PennDOT and Gov. Wolf’s office to ensure state leaders are up-to-date.

“Uber understands we need to meet a satisfactory level of scientific confidence to resume operations,” Mr. Kintz wrote in an email to Mr. Peduto.

If there is a software update, the company has stringent testing requirements before deploying to its full autonomous fleet, according to an Uber spokesperson. 

First, the technology is simulated in an online environment, then closely watched on company test tracks, including the one in Hazelwood. Then, a small fleet operates with two safety drivers to closely watch for any bugs.

Only after the software has been thoroughly vetted will the entire Uber fleet operate with that update and possibly be deployed to cars with only one safety driver. In Pittsburgh, there’s a mix of cars with either one or two operators in the front seats.

Those operators are subject to a strict three-week training process, according to an Uber spokesperson. New hires take a manual driving course in a stock vehicle that is not autonomous, followed by a written assessment.

Next, they’ll participate in closed-course training and classroom instruction that includes daily driving evaluations and in both manual and self-driving modes. 

In the second week, operators drive on public, pre-selected routes with an experienced operator in the back seat.

In the final week, drivers continue to work on public roads with a seasoned operator. An assessment follows.

While Pittsburgh and Tempe are the only two cities where the pilot programs allow the public to take rides in autonomous vehicles, requirements for vehicle operators remain the same, Uber said, because all test drivers are eventually expected to interact with the public.

Mr. Peduto noted that in the last three years, the Pittsburgh region has seen over 1,200 people employed in the nascent self-driving industry and there is at least $3 billion in investment slated to be poured into the region over the next five years. Argo AI, Aptiv and Aurora Innovation each have a presence in Pittsburgh.

“Just like any other shift in a technology, whether it was the advent of the automobile, aviation or inoculation, there are setbacks,” he said. “Progress comes with risk.”

Mr. Peduto has criticized Arizona’s regulations as being too lax.

“There’s still more testing that needs to happen, but if we are to get to the next phase, we need to be cognizant that there needs to be a continuation of the pilot.” 

Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.

Post-Gazette staff writer Adam Smeltz contributed to this report. The New York Times contributed to this report.

First Published: March 27, 2018, 9:28 p.m.

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An Uber self-driving car navigating a test site in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood in May 2017.  (Tom M. Johnson/The New York Times)
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