SAN FRANCISCO -- The fatal accident involving an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle is the most significant involving autonomous-driving technology since a Tesla Inc. driver's death touched off months of finger-pointing and set back the company's Autopilot program.
Tesla came under intense regulatory scrutiny after an Ohio man died using the company's Autopilot driver-assistance system in May 2016.
Mobileye, which supplied image-sensing equipment to the electric-car maker, cut ties in an ugly and public breakup. Tesla transitioned to new hardware in October of that year that disabled its cars' capability to automatically brake in emergencies for months. Autopilot also stopped allowing drivers to ignore repeated warnings to keep their hands on the wheel.
Uber has now landed in the crosshairs of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Transportation Safety Board -- two agencies that probed Tesla -- after a Volvo XC90 equipped with Uber software struck a female pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz.
Volvo Cars and Toyota Motor Corp., which was also planning to team up with Uber, have yet to say whether the fatal crash that happened Sunday will have long-term impact on their respective partnerships.
