Hyperdrive
Toyota Halts Robot-Car Tests Citing Drivers' Emotional Toll
- Carmaker pauses ‘Chauffeur’ system after Uber’s Arizona crash
- Company had been doing on-road testing in Michigan, California
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Toyota Motor Corp. halted tests of its “Chauffeur” autonomous driving system on U.S. public roads after a Uber Technologies Inc. vehicle operating in autonomous mode under the supervision of a human safety driver struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, on Sunday evening.
“Because we feel the incident may have an emotional effect on our test drivers, we have decided to temporarily pause our Chauffeur mode testing on public roads,” spokesman Brian Lyons said in an emailed statement, referring to its hands-off testing mode. The carmaker said it could not speculate on the cause of the crash or what it may mean to the future of the nascent automated driving sector.