Uber is resuming its autonomous vehicle testing program three days after one of its self-driving Volvo SUVs was involved in a crash in Tempe, Arizona.
On Friday, the day of the crash, Uber temporarily suspended its autonomous testing program.
The collision was caused by a human-driven vehicle failing to yield to the Uber vehicle while making a turn, according to the Tempe police department.
“The vehicles collided, causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto its side,” Josie Montenegro, a spokeswoman for Tempe’s police department, told Reuters in an email. “There were no serious injuries.”
A complete report on the crash is expected as soon as sometime this week.
Meanwhile, Uber has completed its internal investigation into the incident and cleared its autonomous cars to begin driving again in the three cities where it operates its self-driving testing program – Tempe, San Francisco and Pittsburgh.
Since Uber started testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh last September its autonomous vehicles in the area, Ford Fusion cars retrofitted with Uber’s driverless tech, have been picking up passengers in the city.
The company planned to launch a similar testing program in San Francisco in December. However, after failing to obtain the necessary autonomous-vehicle license before the launch, the California DMV revoked registrations of Uber’s 16 driverless vehicles. Its autonomous vehicles were then relocated to Tempe, Arizona to carry out the driverless testing.
Uber does operate a testing program in San Francisco, however, unlike in Tempe or Pittsburgh, the company has used two Ford Fusions with autonomous technology to map routes of the city, and the cars have not been driving autonomously.
Testing in the three cities will now resume.
