Disabled braking in self-driving car crash

The emergency braking system had been disabled in an Uber self-driving vehicle that killed a woman in Arizona in March, the US investigating agency has found.

Uber had disabled an emergency braking system in a self-driving vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Arizona in March even though the car had identified the need to apply the brakes, the US agency investigating the incident has found.

The modified 2017 Volvo XC90's radar systems observed the pedestrian six seconds before impact but "the self-driving system software classified the pedestrian as an unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle with varying expectations of future travel path", a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board showed

The incident was the first fatal crash caused by a self-driving vehicle.

At 1.3 seconds before impact, the self-driving system determined emergency braking was needed.

But Uber said, according to the NTSB, that automatic emergency braking manoeuvres in the Volvo XC90 were disabled while the car was under computer control in order to "reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behaviour."

The report gives new fuel to opponents in Congress who have stalled a bill designed to speed the deployment of self-driving cars on US roads and puts a spotlight on the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not test self-driving vehicles or certify them before they are deployed on US roads.

Uber, which voluntarily suspended testing after the crash in the city of Tempe, said on Wednesday it planned to end testing in Arizona and focus on limited testing in Pittsburgh and two cities in California.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road when she was struck by the Uber vehicle travelling at 63 kmph.

A safety operator behind the wheel appeared to be looking down, and not at the road, moments before the crash, according to video from inside the car released by police. The operator told the NTSB she was not looking at a mobile phone but monitoring the vehicle's self-driving systems.

Tempe police said on Wednesday it had completed its investigation and turned the findings over to prosecutors to review. Police did not release the results of the probe.