Uber Self-Driving Tests Resumed After Disastrous Crash, Pittsburgh Not Concerned

After sustaining a setback on Friday when one of its self-driving test cars was flipped on its side during an accident, Uber is now resuming its roads tests. The autonomous cabs will be back on the roads of the three states that are hosting them, including Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Speaking of the first location of Uber’s self-driving tests, it seems the city of Pittsburgh isn’t that concerned about the crash.

Self-driving cabs are basically the cornerstone of Uber’s future business plans, which is why it is pushing so hard to be the first to offer such a service on a large scale. Any delay to the tests it is conducting could jeopardize this goal, explaining why it is resuming deployment of autonomous vehicles on the road so soon. Aside from Pittsburgh, the self-driving cabs will also be on the roads of Tempe, Arizona and San Francisco, California, Business Insider reports.

Of course, the cab-hailing firm is not going to get out of this debacle without a scratch. Right now, the California DMV is already looking into what caused the crash. On the surface, it was simply a matter of the human driver not yielding to the machine driver, but this is never the whole story.

As the first location of Uber’s self-driving cab tests, Pittsburgh is conducting its own investigation into the crash as well, Quartz reports. Based on the emailed statement by the local government’s spokesperson Tim McNulty, however, it seems the city really isn’t even that concerned about what happened.

“Pittsburgh has been a host to automated vehicle technology for two decades, and will continue to be a leader in the technology for years to come,” the email read. “One traffic incident in a city 2,000 miles away—in which the automated vehicle was not at fault, according to Tempe police—is not going to change that.”