Car giant parks driverless cars following fatal Uber crash

Toyota has pulled its autonomous vehicles from public testing after a woman was killed by a driverless Uber on Sunday.

The world’s biggest carmaker has a fleet of vehicles going through testing in the race to get autonomous vehicles on the road.

Toyota’s driverless cars have what is known as Level 2 or 3 autonomy as AXA’s David Williams explains: “Level 2 or 3 autonomy means that a driver can take over control whenever they want. So, these are really driver assisting cars.”

Toyota took the decision to suspend testing on public roads after 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was killed while walking her bike across the road in Tempe, Arizona.

“We’ve told our drivers to take a couple of days off, so we can assess the situation,” Rick Bourgoise, a Toyota spokesman told The New York Times.

The manufacturer will continue to test its autonomous vehicles at three of its enclosed test sites in the USA.

Ford and General Motors are still testing on public roads, with the latter saying its plans to “commercially launch in dense urban environments in 2019 remain unchanged,” but it has said it will not launch until it is “satisfied that it is safe to do so.”

Yesterday, the ABI said “lessons had to be learned” before autonomous vehicles are ready for the public, something the government hopes will happen by 2021.