Road death via Uber vehicle causes companies to rethink their testing strategy

Everybody knows, clearly or vaguely, that someday our cars will drive us around autonomously, but their time of arrival has been a heated topic. While the optimistic argue such cars are only three to five years away, many others insist it may take 10 years for them to become a reality.

The conservative estimate seems to be gaining an upper hand after an autonomous Uber car killed a woman in the United States last month when she walked her bicycle across the street. It was the first fatal crash involving a self-driving car being tested.

Uber soon suspended its tests of autonomous cars and Japanese automaker Toyota followed suit by halting such testing on public roads in the US. Tests in enclosed grounds continue. Many other tech companies and automakers, including General Motors and Ford, have so far not been disturbed by the accident.

Yet the accident has raised the concerns that the current technology may have many problems to solve, although it is agreed that in the long run autonomous cars will be safer because, unlike people, cars will not grow tired or distracted.

"There is no doubt that ultimately autonomous cars will do a better job than us," said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association.

"But this accident sounds a timely warning that currently we cannot put all our faith in the technology, and we still need a lot more work to improve and test it."

In China, internet search giant Baidu has probably the most aggressive campaign regarding autonomous driving. It established its intelligent driving unit in late 2015 and unveiled its Apollo last year, an open platform that is said to help its partners develop their own autonomous driving systems.

According to Baidu, the platform has attracted many Chinese and international partners, including BYD, Ford, Microsoft and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.

Apollo is expected to fully support all four major computing platforms: NVIDIA, Intel, NXP and Renesas this year.

Days before the Uber accident, Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li said fully autonomous vehicles on truly open roads are only three to five years away.