Uber's self-driving car caused a fatal accident, and the company had already issued a warning about vehicle safety issues

Last March, an Uber self-driving car crashed during testing in Arizona, killing a pedestrian. According to U.S. media reports, just days before the accident, Robbie Miller, a manager at Uber's self-driving car division, warned company executives that the software used in these self-driving cars could be dangerous.

Miller also warned that human drivers responsible for safety in the vehicles were not properly trained and were not competent for their jobs, and that even though these drivers made repeated mistakes, they were not fired.

On March 13, 2017, Miller, manager of Uber's test operations team, sent an 890-word email to Eric Meyhofer, head of Uber's autonomous driving department, Jon Thomason, vice president of software, and five other executives and lawyers. He warned that Uber's self-driving cars being used for testing "often have accidents and cause damage." "This is usually the result of poor behavior by the operator (human driver) or the self-driving car technology." "Almost every other day in February, a car was hit and damaged." At the same time, Miller gave a comprehensive proposal, which he believed would reduce the possibility of accidents.

Five days later, on March 18, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was killed after being hit by an Uber self-driving car while crossing the road in Arizona. Uber immediately stopped testing self-driving cars on public roads and reached a settlement with Herzberg's family two weeks later. The police later revealed in a report that the backup safety driver of the car was watching on his mobile phone when the accident occurred. The accident also raised serious questions about the safety of Uber's self-driving technology system.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first crash involving Uber in Tempe. About a year ago, an Uber self-driving car also collided with another car. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Recently, according to foreign media reports, Uber plans to restart its self-driving car trials on public streets, but compared to the scale before the fatal accident, this time the planned goals have been greatly reduced. Uber said last Wednesday that it plans to start testing vehicles on a one-mile loop between two office buildings in Pittsburgh in a few weeks, running at a speed not exceeding 25 miles per hour, and will not operate at night or in wet weather. Currently, Uber is waiting for approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and will not start testing before then, but a company spokesperson did not confirm a specific start date.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.