Uber is “likely” not to be blamed for an accident involving one of its self-driving cars that led to the death of a woman in Arizona, Tempe police chief Sylvia Moir told The San Francisco Chronicle.

“I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident,” Moir said. The incident is believed to be the first known fatality involving a self-driving car on a public road. “The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them,” Moir said of the accident. “His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision.”

While Moir refers to the driver as a male, it was later revealed that the operator is actually a female, 44-year-old Rafaela Vasquez. Vasquez has since come under scrutiny following a report from Arizona Central that revealed she is a convicted felon.

In the early 2000s, Vasquez served almost four years in an Arizona prison for an attempted armed robbery conviction. Moir said police “won’t rule out the potential to file charges against the [backup driver] in the Uber vehicle.”

That said, police are saying that the accident may have been the fault of the victim, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who appeared to be homeless. Using footage obtained from two video cameras outfitted to the self-driving Uber Volvo SUV — one facing forward toward the street, the other focused on the driver — police say that it appears that car didn’t have enough time to stop before hitting Herzberg.

According to police, the Uber vehicle was driving at 38 miles-per-hour (approximately 61 kilometres-per-hour) in a 35 mph zone (roughly 56 kph) on the night of Sunday, March 18th.

Moir said the car made no attempt to brake, adding “it’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway.”

Moir said Herzberg was “perhaps within 100 yards” of a crosswalk, noting “it is dangerous to cross roadways in the evening hour when well-illuminated, managed crosswalks are available.”

While the incident raises safety concerns associated with self-driving cars, Moir said she’s only aware of one other accident, which occurred a year ago. In that incident, authorities determined the other car involved failed to yield and cited its driver for a moving violation. Moir said it’s difficult to determine to fault in self-driving car accidents because “this is really new ground we’re venturing into.”

Uber has confirmed it will temporarily halt its self-driving car tests in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Toronto as the investigation continues.</s>Investigators from two federal transportation agencies arrived Tuesday in Tempe in the aftermath of Sunday's fatal collision between a pedestrian and a self-driving Uber car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Transportation Safety Board both sent two "full teams" of people to the city, police said.

"They want to understand what has happened here and the technology in place," said Tempe Police Commander Jeffrey Glover.

He expects the teams to assist Tempe's traffic investigation and do their own investigations.

The NTSB published a news release on Monday saying the probe would "address the vehicle’s interaction with the environment, other vehicles, and vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists."

Chief investigator Jennifer Morrison will lead three NTSB investigators "who will examine vehicle factors, human performance, and electronic recorders," the agency said.

Uber sent a team of people from its corporate headquarters on Tuesday as well, Glover said.

The San Francisco-based company halted its self-driving-car test operations in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto after the collision. Until then, then sometimes-autonomous Volvo XC90 SUVs were a common sight in Tempe, often grouping together in twos or threes at intersections near Arizona State University.

One of those vehicles was driving north on Mill Avenue at about 10 p.m. on Sunday when it hit a woman pushing a bicycle laden with shopping bags across the street. She later died at a local hospital.

The Volvo was in the lane nearest the curb, about 100 yards south of Curry Road, and going about 40 mph at the time of the collision. Initial evidence shows the vehicle didn't brake "significantly" before the impact.

Tempe police said on Monday, and Uber later confirmed, that the Volvo was in "autonomous mode" when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. An Uber backup driver, Rafaela Vasquez, was in the driver's seat at the time.

On Monday, Tempe police Sergeant Ronald Elcock told reporters that impairment doesn't appear to be a factor for either Herzberg or Vasquez, and that it was too early to tell who was more at fault. He declined to characterize the statements Vasquez made to police after the crash.

Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir, who was chief of police in El Cerrito, California, before becoming Tempe's chief in March 2016, went into greater detail with the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.

She said Vasquez told police "it was like a flash; the person walked out in front of them."

"(Vasquez's) first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision," Moir told the newspaper.

Moir said that after watching video from the Uber car of the moment before the collision, "it’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway ... I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident."

Glover downplayed Moir's statements, saying some were taken "out of context" by the Chronicle. The chief disagrees with the Chronicle's headline, "Tempe police chief says early probe shows no fault by Uber," Glover said.

It's too early to say which party was more responsible, he said, and Tempe wants to "wait to reserve judgment."

Moir, who did not return messages from Phoenix New Times on Monday or Tuesday, told the Chronicle that she would not rule out seeking charges on Vasquez, if the investigation warrants such an action.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery's office will decide if any laws were broken. If there are criminal charges, the case seems likely to break new ground in technology law.

If Vasquez is charged with a crime, Uber likely will provide serious legal help. It's also possible, according to Governor Doug Ducey's office, that Uber as a corporate "person" under the law could be criminally charged in the right circumstances.

Ducey's office invited Uber to the state in 2015 with the promise of fewer rules. On March 1, following questions about the lax rules and the possibility of no-backup-driver testing, Ducey issued a new executive order with slightly more stringent requirements.

Uber's one of several companies conducting testing of self-driving technology in Arizona.

See below for Tempe PD's news release on the federal agencies' investigation of the Uber crash:</s>Around the world, vehicles kill more people than HIV/AIDS – about 1.3 million each year. In the vast majority of cases, it is the inattentive and error-prone humans operating those cars and lorries who are at fault.

Events in Arizona mark a new phase in this story. Pedestrian Elaine Herzberg died after being struck by an autonomous Uber car on Sunday as she crossed a road – the first time that a self-driving vehicle has claimed the life of another road user. Local police said that the vehicle was in autonomous mode, travelling …</s>TEMPE/SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - Uber was likely not at fault in the accident in Tempe, Arizona, where a woman was struck and killed by one of Uber’s self-driving cars on Sunday (March 18), the authorities said on Monday, though concerns have been raised over possible challenges faced by the promising technology.

The San Francisco Chronicle late Monday reported that Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir said that from viewing videos taken from the vehicle "it's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway".

Moir told the Chronicle, "I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident," but she did not rule out that charges could be filed against the operator in the Uber vehicle, the paper reported.

An Uber self-driving car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona on Monday, marking the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.

The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto.

So-called robot cars, when fully developed by companies including Uber, Alphabet Inc and General Motors Co , are expected to drastically cut down on motor vehicle fatalities and create billion-dollar businesses.

But Monday's accident underscored the possible challenges ahead for the promising technology as the cars confront real-world situations involving real people.

US lawmakers have been debating legislation that would speed introduction of self-driving cars.

"This tragic accident underscores why we need to be exceptionally cautious when testing and deploying autonomous vehicle technologies on public roads," said Democratic Senator Edward Markey, a member of the transportation committee, in a statement.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe about 10pm MST Sunday (0400 GMT Monday) when she was struck by the Uber vehicle travelling at about 65km per hour, police said.

The Volvo XC90 SUV was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel. Herzberg later died from her injuries in a hospital, police said.

"The pedestrian was outside of the crosswalk. As soon as she walked into the lane of traffic she was struck," Tempe Police Sergeant Ronald Elcock told reporters at a news conference. He said he did not yet know how close Herzberg was to the vehicle when she stepped into the lane.

Elcock said he believed Herzberg may have been homeless.

The “Tempe Police Department does not determine fault in vehicular collisions,” the department said in a statement late Monday, in reply to questions from Reuters about the chief’s comments.

“Ultimately the investigation will be submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review and any potential charges.”

Tempe authorities and federal officials are still investigating the incident. Canada's transportation ministry in Ontario, where Uber conducts testing, also said it was reviewing the accident.

Volvo, the Swedish car brand owned by China's Geely , said the software controlling the car in the crash was not its own.

Video footage will aid the ongoing investigation, and the case would be submitted to the district attorney, Elcock said.

"Our investigators have that information, and they will be using that in their investigation as well as the Maricopa County Attorney's Office as part of their investigation," said Elcock.

"They are going to attempt to try to find who was possibly at fault and how we can better be safe, whether it's pedestrians or whether it's the vehicle itself."

Uber and Waymo on Friday urged Congress to pass sweeping legislation to speed the introduction of self-driving cars into the United States. Some congressional Democrats have blocked the legislation over safety concerns, and Monday's fatality could hamper passage of the bill, congressional aides said Monday.

Safety advocates called for a national moratorium on all robot car testing on public roads.

"Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place," said Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, in a statement. "That's why Uber and Waymo test there. When there's no sheriff in town, people get killed."

Arizona has opened its arms to companies testing self-driving vehicles as a means to economic growth and jobs.

Republican Governor Doug Ducey reached out to Uber in 2016 after California regulators cracked down on the company over its failure to obtain testing permits.

Self-driving cars being tested routinely get into fender-benders with other vehicles. Last week, a self-driving Uber crashed with another vehicle in Pittsburgh, local news reported. There were no injuries.

A year ago, Uber temporarily grounded its self-driving cars for a few days following a crash with another car in Tempe. The company has been the subject of a number of complaints about its autonomous vehicles, but the company has said the cars were being driven by a human driver at the time of the incidents.

Uber has said its ability to build autonomous cars is essential to its success in the rapidly changing transportation industry. The company envisions a network of autonomous cars that would be summoned through the Uber app that would supplement - and eventually replace - human-driven cars.

Uber has logged 2 million self-driving miles (3.2 million km) through December. The company has more than 100 autonomous cars testing on the roads of the greater Phoenix area, the company's prime testing ground due to the state's loose regulations and hospitable weather.

Rain, snow and ice are particularly challenging for autonomous cars. The company also tests in Pittsburgh and Toronto.

Concerns over the safety of autonomous vehicles flared after a July 2016 fatality involving a Tesla Inc automobile with a partially autonomous system that required human supervision. Safety regulators later determined Tesla was not at fault.</s>The death of an Arizona pedestrian by a self-driving car has resurfaced concerns that this futuristic technology is too risky to test in public places.

Could such a crash happen near you? If many states, the answer is yes. More than 30 states have passed measures to accommodate these robotic cars. In at least five, autonomous cars are already roaming the roads.

Sunday's deadly Uber crash in Tempe, Ariz., appears to be the first involving a self-driving car of a person not inside the vehicle. Police said the car was operating in autonomous mode, with an Uber employee at the wheel. Transportation authorities are investigating why the car and driver failed to stop.

Despite enduring concerns from consumers — polls show that most remain nervous about riding in a self-driving car — many state officials are eager to be seen as business friendly while also hoping to be part of a lucrative transportation paradigm shift.

From Maine to Hawaii, laws are either on the books or in the works that welcome self-driving cars, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.

More: An Uber tragedy could upend the self-driving car industry

More: Operator of self-driving Uber vehicle that killed pedestrian was felon

The 21 states (and Washington, D.C.) that have passed legislation approving such testing are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont.

And governors in these 11 states have issued executive orders or announced initiatives related to autonomous vehicles: Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Holdouts include a large swath of midwestern states, as well as Oregon in the far west, New Mexico in the southwest and New Jersey in the east.

Although only a few of these states actually host ongoing self-driving car programs, the thinking is that getting in early on a self-driving car platform could bring in tax revenues from businesses and employees looking for cutting-edge places to call home.

"There are clearly incentives to being as welcoming as possible, because when some states added hurdles (for example, California's Department of Motor Vehicles requires self-driving permit holders to report accidents), companies just left for a more friendly state," says Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Cox Automotive.

Uber moved to Arizona after California's DMV said the company didn't have proper permits to test.

But the death in Arizona, which caused Uber to halt all of its self-driving operations while the incident is investigated, is likely to at least give lawmakers pause as they weigh the benefits of embracing new technology with the concerns of citizens.

"Everyone's going to stop and look at what's going on with autonomous car testing now," says Brauer.

More: Waymo ups ante on rival Uber in self-driving truck game

More: Uber trucks start shuttling goods across Arizona — by themselves

Tempe police continue to investigate Sunday's crash, and officials from the National Transportation Safety Board also plan an inquiry.

The Uber safety driver in the vehicle at the time of the crash, Rafaela Vasquez, 44, was not impaired during the incident, although she was hired by Uber with a criminal record. She did prison time connected to an armed robbery conviction.

Vasquez's place at the wheel raises questions about Uber's employee vetting practices; the company ran afoul of Colorado lawmakers last year and was fined $8.9 million for having drivers on its platform that had felony convictions.

The victim, Elaine Herzberg, 49, stepped into the street well away from a crosswalk as the Uber car approached in self-driving mode at around 40 mph. The woman, who was homeless, died from her injuries at a hospital.

Bruce Belzowski, managing director of the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute, says he "wouldn't be surprised if some states get nervous, because you certainly don't want citizens dying due to your decisions."

One possible outcome: moves to test the cars in restricted areas.

Michigan has two private facilities dedicated solely to testing self-driving cars and suggests that such a fenced-in approach could gain popularity with state officials if constituents get skittish about mingling with robot cars.

"Trust in this tech isn't that high still," said Belzowski.

Proponents will point to self-driving cars' potential to help with alarming trends. Traffic deaths topped 40,000 in 2017, up 6% over 2015, according to the National Safety Council. And pedestrian deaths have shot up around 9% to 6,000 in each of the past two years, attributable in part to distracted driving and legal-in-some-states marijuana use.

In contrast, Google's self driving program has been operating for nine years and has logged 5 million testing miles with no fatalities. Most accidents reported have typically been fender benders caused by distracted human drivers. Uber cars have driven nearly 2 million miles in the past few years of testing.

"It's always horrible when a person dies," says Belzowski. "But it's also important to keep things in perspective as this new technology is reviewed and tested."

Gene Munster, analyst with Loop Ventures, released a note Tuesday tracking progress in self-driving tech that reflected on the Tempe accident.

"What’s the right way to think about the risks of autonomy?" Munster writes. "Is the threshold for AVs zero accidents, or is it an improvement relative to human drivers? In the end, we continue to believe humans should not drive, and that traffic and pedestrian fatalities will decline under autonomy."

Arizona especially friendly to new tech

The most likely places to spot a self-driving car include San Francisco, where a variety of tech companies and automakers are trying out their software, Pittsburgh, where Uber has been picking up passengers for more than a year, Kirkland, Wash., Austin, Texas, where Waymo has been driving its Pacifica Hybrid minivans, and Detroit, where Ford has been deploying its own tech-enabled vehicles.

But Arizona has been especially accommodating to self-driving car operations.

While California allows the testing with specific oversight requirements, Arizona governor Doug Ducey issued a 2015 executive order that permitted the tests without any special licensing or registration.

Besides Uber, which has been road-testing its Volvo vehicles around the Phoenix area, Waymo, Google parent Alphabet's autonomous car company, has been running a beta program in which it regularly shuttles passengers around the metropolitan area.

Waymo said that later this year it was planning to open the program up to the public, essentially marking the first official autonomous ride-hailing operation in the country.

Ducey recently updated his order to clarify that fully autonomous vehicle operators must submit a statement to the Department of Transportation confirming that its cars comply with federal law, are not a danger if they malfunction, and that the safety drivers monitoring rides from the driver's seat can be cited if laws are broken.</s>A woman walking outside a crosswalk in Phoenix was killed when she was hit by a self-driving car

Police say a woman walking outside a crosswalk on Sunday night in the Phoenix area when she was hit by the self-driving car. (@zombieite/Flickr)

Uber Technologies Inc. has suspended all of its self-driving vehicle testing — including a program in Toronto — after what is believed to be the first fatal pedestrian crash involving autonomous vehicles.

Uber’s testing was halted after police in a Phoenix suburb said one of its self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian overnight Sunday.

The vehicle was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel when a woman walking outside of a crosswalk was hit, Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock said.

The woman died of her injuries at a hospital.

“Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Twitter.

“We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”

The testing has been going on for months in Toronto, the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh and San Francisco as automakers and technology companies compete to be the first with the technology.

Uber Canada said Monday in an email that two of its vehicles are being tested in Toronto but they have not been picking up passengers.

It said testing has been conducted since last fall, using software that was studied in simulation and on the test track before being deployed to the road.

But the fatality isn’t likely to derail the driverless vehicle industry because it is at such an early stage in its development, said Ross McKenzie, managing director at the University of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research.

“I’m shocked. It’s very, very disappointing,” he said.

“It’s shocking because it’s something we aspire to never have happen. The whole purpose of autonomous driving is to make the operation of vehicles safer because you take out of equation the random, unpredictable behaviour of human operators, like speeding to get through an amber light or taking your eyes off the road to pick up a coffee cup.”

He added the incident will serve to further focus the industry on safety.

Related: Uber official says public needs to push for ridesharing in B.C.

The Waterloo research centre has a four-car fleet of autonomous car it is currently testing. McKenzie said most of the testing takes place on a closed track but the first tests on a public road took place last year.

More on-road testing is scheduled for this year and he said the incident has not resulted in any immediate change to that schedule.

Canada has been slow to embrace driverless vehicles but some advances have been made.

In January, Suncor Energy Inc. announced it would go ahead with a project to deploy driverless ore-hauling trucks at its remote oilsands mines in northern Alberta to replace the ones humans operate.

The initiative, which follows years of testing, is expected to eliminate about 400 jobs. The Calgary-based company plans to build a 150-truck fleet of 400-tonne capacity Komatsu trucks over the next six years.

Last week, Magna International announced a deal with Lyft Inc., an American ride-hailing company that competes with Uber, to develop advanced driverless car technology through a multi-year partnership and a US$200 million investment in Lyft.

Magna is to earn the exclusive right to manufacture kits to be used to convert Lyft’s fleet into autonomous, driverless vehicles. The kits will include cameras, radar and other sensors required for the vehicles as well as software developed by the two companies, using Magna’s manufacturing expertise and Lyft’s data from its ride-sharing operations.

In October, BlackBerry QNX launched testing of a self-driving car in Ottawa with what was billed as the first on-street test of an autonomous vehicle in Canada after opening an innovation centre in late 2016.

Meanwhile, a Canadian Senate committee warned in a report earlier this year departments and levels of government are taking contradictory approaches to automated vehicles and the federal government needs to better co-ordinate action.

It recommended giving the privacy commissioner greater reach over how car companies use drivers’ information, including whether personal information can be monetized, and giving federal cybersecurity officials a bigger role in protecting the new technology from hackers.

The committee also said the government must invest more in its own research to deal with questions of safety, such as how to ensure a driverless car can safely navigate a snow-covered road.

It said self-driving cars could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost productivity and limit the number of collisions caused by human error.

But the technology could also lead to job losses in transportation sectors where some 1.1 million people are employed, including truck, bus, and taxi drivers. The Liberals, the committee said, must put in place job re-training programs for those whose jobs will be affected, and ensure sectors like after-market companies can maintain a foothold as new, automated cars hit the roads.

The U.S. federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>Image copyright Reuters

Uber said it is suspending self-driving car tests in all North American cities after a fatal accident.

A 49-year-old woman was hit by a car and killed as she crossed the street in Tempe, Arizona.

While self-driving cars have been involved in multiple accidents, it is thought to be the first time an autonomous car has been involved in a fatal collision.

Uber said that its "hearts go out to the victim's family".

"We're fully cooperating with @TempePolice and local authorities as they investigate this incident", the company said in a statement on Twitter.

Police said the accident happened Sunday night while the car was in autonomous mode. A human monitor was also behind the wheel.

Police said the woman, Elaine Herzberg, had not been using a pedestrian crossing. Herzberg was taken to a local hospital where she died.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were sending teams to Tempe.

'Wake up call'

Companies including Ford, General Motors, Tesla and Waymo are investing heavily in research to develop self-driving cars, which are often characterised as the future of the industry and hailed as a way to reduce traffic accidents.

Many states across America have welcomed the tests in the hope of keeping themselves at the forefront of new technology.

However, there have been warnings that the technology is being deployed before it is ready.

Anthony Foxx, who served as US Secretary of Transportation under former President Barack Obama, called the accident a "wake up call to the entire [autonomous vehicle] industry and government to put a high priority on safety."

More than a dozen states in the US allow autonomous vehicles on the roads to some degree. Officials typically require a person to be on hand either in the car or remotely in case something goes wrong, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

The US is working on national safety guidelines for such vehicles.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A self-driving car at the Google headquarters in 2015

Consumer Watchdog, a lobby group that has warned of the risks of autonomous cars, on Monday called for a moratorium of such vehicles on public roads, describing the accident as a "tragedy we have been fighting years to prevent".

"We hope our calls for real regulation of driverless cars will be taken seriously going forward by Silicon Valley and the Trump Administration," the group wrote on Twitter.

Uber started testing driverless cars in Pittsburgh in 2016. The ride-hailing firm has also been testing driverless cars in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto and the Phoenix area, which includes Tempe.

The death comes a year after Uber took its self-driving cars off the road following an accident that left a Volvo SUV on its side in Arizona. The programme was later reinstated.

Carla Bailo, president and chief executive of the Center for Automotive Research, said more information about how the crash occurred is necessary before officials can say what went wrong and how the self-driving system should be improved.

She also said the fatality should be considered in the context of all accidents.

More than 37,000 people, including almost 6,000 pedestrians, died in traffic accidents in the US in 2016, according to the US Department of Transportation.

"We need to be fair and look at all the data," she said. "But I don't think anybody is taking this lightly. By far safety is the first concern.

Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell said he supports autonomous car tests because of the technology's potential. He also praised Uber's decision to suspend the programme as "responsible".

"Our city leadership and Tempe Police will pursue any and all answers to what happened in order to ensure safety moving forward," he said.</s>A self-driving Volvo SUV from the ride-hailing giant Uber traveling at 64 km per hour has killed a woman in the US state of Arizona, triggering a heated debate on whether autonomous cars are safe enough and who is to blame for the death.

Social media users expressed sadness and regret for the death of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing her bicycle across the street in Tempe City when she was hit by the Uber self-driving vehicle on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to Tempe police, the victim was walking outside of the crosswalk when she was hit by the car, which was in autonomous mode at that time although a vehicle operator was behind the wheel.

The woman was taken to a hospital where she died from her injuries.

"Our hearts go out to the victim's family," Uber said on its official Twitter page. "We're fully cooperating with Police and local authorities as they investigate this incident."

Reaction was strong and diverse across the US especially in the west, where Arizona, California and Utah had been vying to become the first American state to allow widespread use of self-driving cars by the end of 2018.

The argument that cars driven by people cause thousands of deaths a year was one of many used by a majority of Americans who defended the fledgling self-driving car industry.

Voices of concern on social media noted that forthcoming details of the tragedy will reveal every possible angle and explanation for what transpired.

"This will probably be the most well-documented and studied car-on-pedestrian crash in history," "Ignatius 345" wrote on MacRumors forum.

"It's important to remember that the car probably recorded this accident in extreme detail and we'll know exactly what happened soon enough," wrote Nela K on ArsTechnica, a tech news and analysis website.

From across the Atlantic Ocean in England, industry experts voiced dismay but hoped that self-driving car progress and adaptation will not be slowed.

"It is very unfortunate that a fatality has arisen," University of York Professor John McDermid said, "but it serves to draw attention to the need for widely accepted approaches to assessing the safety of autonomous systems."

Still, most bloggers were looking for solutions and not to point blame for the terrible event -- the first time a person was killed by a self-driving car, the New York Times reported.

Autonomous vehicles from Uber have been operating in Arizona since February of 2017, part of a national series of tests of autonomous vehicles.

In 2016, Joshua Brown, 40, of Ohio was killed when his Tesla Model S electric sedan crashed into a tractor-trailer while reportedly in autopilot mode. (IANS)</s>(AP Photo/Chris Carlson). Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock speaks during a news conference Monday, March 19, 2018 after a pedestrian was stuck by a Uber vehicle in autonomous mode Sunday night in Tempe, Ariz. The vehicle was in autonomous mode with an o...

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson). Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock speaks during a news conference Monday, March 19, 2018 after a pedestrian was stuck by a Uber vehicle in autonomous mode Sunday night in Tempe, Ariz. The vehicle was in autonomous mode with an o...

(AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File). FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2016 file photo, an Uber driverless car is displayed in a garage in San Francisco. Uber suspended all of its self-driving testing Monday, March 19, 2018, after what is believed to be the first fat...

(AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File). FILE - In this March 1, 2017 file photo, people enter the headquarters of Uber in San Francisco. Uber suspended all of its self-driving testing Monday, March 19, 2018, after what is believed to be the first fatal pedestri...

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson). A vehicle goes by the scene of Sunday's fatality where a pedestrian was stuck by an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode, in Tempe, Ariz., Monday, March 19, 2018. A self-driving Uber SUV struck and killed the woman in suburban Phoe...

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - A fatal pedestrian crash involving a self-driving Uber SUV in a Phoenix suburb could have far-reaching consequences for the new technology as automakers and other companies race to be the first with cars that operate on their own.

The crash Sunday night in Tempe was the first death involving a full autonomous test vehicle. The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she was walking a bicycle outside the lines of a crosswalk in Tempe, police said.

Uber immediately suspended all road-testing of such autos in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. The ride-sharing company has been testing self-driving vehicles for months as it competes with other technology companies and automakers like Ford and General Motors.

Though many in the industries had been dreading a fatal crash they knew it was inevitable.

Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock said local authorities haven't determined fault but urged people to use crosswalks. He told reporters at a news conference Monday the Uber vehicle was traveling around 40 mph when it hit Helzberg immediately as she stepped on to the street.

Neither she nor the backup driver showed signs of impairment, he said.

"The pedestrian was outside of the crosswalk, so it was midblock," Elcock said. "And as soon as she walked into the lane of traffic, she was struck by the vehicle."

The National Transportation Safety Board, which makes recommendations for preventing crashes, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which can enact regulations, sent investigators.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed condolences on his Twitter account and said the company is cooperating with investigators.

The public's image of the vehicles will be defined by stories like the crash in Tempe, said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who studies self-driving vehicles. It may turn out that there was nothing either the vehicle or its human backup could have done to avoid the crash, he said.

Either way, the fatality could hurt the technology's image and lead to a push for more regulations at the state and federal levels, Smith said.

Autonomous vehicles with laser, radar and camera sensors and sophisticated computers have been billed as the way to reduce the more than 40,000 traffic deaths a year in the U.S. alone. Ninety-four percent of crashes are caused by human error, the government says.

Self-driving vehicles don't drive drunk, don't get sleepy and aren't easily distracted. But they do have faults.

"We should be concerned about automated driving," Smith said. "We should be terrified about human driving."

In 2016, the latest year available, more than 6,000 U.S. pedestrians were killed by vehicles.

The federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.

Many states, including Michigan and Arizona, have taken a largely hands-off approach, hoping to gain jobs from the new technology, while California and others have taken a harder line.

California is among states that require manufacturers to report any incidents during the testing phase. As of early March, the state's motor vehicle agency had received 59 such reports.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey used light regulations to entice Uber to the state after the company had a shaky rollout of test cars in San Francisco. Arizona has no reporting requirements. Hundreds of vehicles with automated driving systems have been on Arizona's roads.

Ducey's office expressed sympathy for Herzberg's family and said safety is the top priority.

The crash in Arizona isn't the first involving an Uber autonomous test vehicle. In March 2017, an Uber SUV flipped onto its side, also in Tempe. No serious injuries were reported, and the driver of the other car was cited for a violation.

Herzberg's death is the first involving an autonomous test vehicle but not the first in a car with some self-driving features. The driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in 2016 when his car, operating on its Autopilot system, crashed into a tractor-trailer in Florida.

The NTSB said that driver inattention was to blame but that design limitations with the system played a major role in the crash.

The U.S. Transportation Department is considering further voluntary guidelines that it says would help foster innovation. Proposals also are pending in Congress, including one that would stop states from regulating autonomous vehicles, Smith said.

Peter Kurdock, director of regulatory affairs for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety in Washington, said the group sent a letter Monday to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao saying it is concerned about a lack of action and oversight by the department as autonomous vehicles are developed. That letter was planned before the crash.

Kurdock said the deadly accident should serve as a "startling reminder" to members of Congress that they need to "think through all the issues to put together the best bill they can to hopefully prevent more of these tragedies from occurring."

Krisher reported from Detroit. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this story.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Sunday marked a turning point for self-driving cars. For the first time, a car in full autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian.

It happened at 10 p.m. in Tempe, Arizona, where ride-hailing company Uber had been picking up passengers in autonomous vehicles for more than a year.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle down a four-lane road and was starting to cross when the gray Volvo, operated by Uber, hit her at about 40 mph, according to local police. It's believed Herzberg was homeless. She was pronounced dead by the time she reached the hospital.

Although the car was driving itself, Uber vehicle operator Rafaela Vasquez, 44, was behind the wheel.

"Our investigation did not show at this time that there were significant signs of the vehicle slowing down," Tempe Police Sergeant Roland Elcock said in a press conference Monday. The police were "going to attempt to find who was at fault and how we can better be safe," he added.

Almost every automaker in the world -- including General Motors, BMW, Ford, Tesla Motors and Toyota -- has plans to offer self-driving cars in the next few years. Several Silicon Valley giants such as Intel and Google have invested years in developing the technologies as well. The promise: greater safety, since such vehicles use software and sensors that let them "see" and react to their surroundings supposedly faster than humans can.

Earlier this month, Uber also began regular operation of self-driving trucks hauling cargo in Arizona, after it wrapped up its testing period. The trucks always have a safety operator who's a licensed truck driver.

For the most part, testing of the technology has shown the cars to be safe. But autonomous technology is still a work in progress. The vast majority of car tests haven't been done on public roads, and the cars are still learning how to drive. Sunday's fatality has some people questioning if the cars belong on public roads at all.

"This is their vehicle, they put it on the road, and they're responsible for making sure it's safe," said consumer attorney Neama Rahmani, who isn't involved with any of the legal proceedings regarding the accident. "Uber needs to not implement any of this until it's fully vetted and tested and 100 percent safe."

This wasn't the first time a self-driving car has been involved in a collision.

Google reported an accident with one of its cars in March 2016, and there have been at least three crashes involving Teslas in autopilot mode, one of which was fatal -- although Tesla warns owners that autopilot isn't fully autonomous. One of Uber's vehicles was involved in another crash in Tempe last year, but no serious injuries were reported. And just last week, an Uber self-driving car in Pittsburgh was in a collision with another car.

Uber's cars have also had some other near misses in Pittsburgh, including reports of fender-benders, going the wrong way down one-way streets and ignoring traffic signals, according to Quartz. No injuries have been reported.

Within hours of Uber launching its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco in December 2016, one ran a red light. A dashboard camera video of the incident, captured by a Luxor Cab taxi, shows a self-driving Volvo SUV zooming through the light long after it turned red and coming uncomfortably close to a pedestrian.

"Sadly, this is a reminder of the risk that comes with rushing to get more and more self-driving cars on public roads before we know they are safe," said David Friedman, director of cars for Consumers Union, which is the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. "The promise of self-driving cars is that they can avoid fatalities, but this tragedy makes clear they have a long way to go."

After Sunday's fatality, some regulators are starting to question whether driverless cars are ready for public roads. Both the National Transportation Safety Board and the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed they're sending teams to Tempe to investigate the collision.

"The investigation will address the vehicle's interaction with the environment, other vehicles and vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists," the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.

The NHTSA said that, along with dispatching its Special Crash Investigation team, it's also in contact with Uber and Volvo, and with federal, state and local authorities, about the incident.

Tempe police said that both Uber and its driver are cooperating fully with its own investigation, which is still in its beginning stages.

Uber's vehicle was equipped with video cameras that show the accident from several angles, including the outside the vehicle and the actions of the person in the driver's seat, according to the police. This footage has not been released to the public.

But Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir did say that the video showed Herzberg emerging from the shadows, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

From viewing the videos, Moir said, "it's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway."

Uber, best-known for its ride-hailing service, has temporarily halted its self-driving operations in all cities where it's been testing its vehicles, including Tempe, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. And the company has said it will do what it can to help the police figure out what happened.

"I support the step that Uber has taken to temporarily suspend testing in Tempe until this event is fully examined and understood," said Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell in a statement. "That is a responsible step to take at this time."

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A woman in Tempe, Arizona, dies after being hit by a self-driving car operated by Uber, in what appears to be the first death of a pedestrian struck by an autonomous vehicle on public roads. In response to the fatal accident, Uber suspends self-driving car tests in all U.S. cities as well as Toronto.