It seems Uber’s ex-head of self-driving cars wasn’t very worried about safety in such vehicles. “We don’t need redundant brakes and steering, or a fancy new car, we need better software,” Anthony Levandowski had written in an email sent to Larry Page, back in January last year. This is when Levandowski was still working with Google and its self-driving effort. “To get to that better software faster we should deploy the first 1000 cars asap. I don’t understand why we are not doing that. Part of our team seems to be afraid to ship,” Levandowski wrote.
Uber's former star engineer and the company's ex-chief of its self-driving program, Anthony Levandowski.
Image credit: Anthony Levandowski via LinkedIn.
These emails came to light during the recent legal battle between Uber and Google-owned Waymo. Interestingly, that battle was over allegations that Levandowski, and hence Uber, had stolen secrets from Waymo about its self-driving cars. According to reports, Levandowski wasn’t the only in Uber who put safety second.
Uber’s self-driving car was traveling at a speed of 40 mph when it fatally knocked down a 49-year old lady in the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona. According to the local police, the vehicle did not show any signs of slowing down. The crash is the most notable fatal incident involving a self-driving vehicle since a driver of a Tesla vehicle was killed two years ago while his vehicle was in semi-autonomous Autopilot mode.
While Levandowski had been fired in February 2018, it’s unclear whether his software had been tweaked since. The information is important right now, in light of the recent fatal accident caused by an Uber self-driving vehicle.
Ever since the Arizona fatal incident, Uber has pulled all of its autonomous cars off the roads.
Image credit: Dllu via CC
The company, however, has since pulled all of its autonomous cars off the roads. Swedish auto giant Volvo and Japanese car maker Toyota, which allegedly also have self-driving partnerships with ride-hailing cab service, have refused to comment on the incident and their ongoing relationship with Uber.
In the meanwhile, according to The New York Times, Mark Mitchell, Tempe’s mayor, called Uber’s decision to suspend autonomous vehicle testing a “responsible step” and cautioned people from drawing conclusions prematurely.
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