ARIZONA, Mar 20: The autonomous vehicle, which was travelling at 65 km/hour and had an operator behind the wheel, did not seem to slow down as it approached the pedestrian.

A self-driving Uber car killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona’s Phoenix in United States, the police said on Monday. This the first fatality involving the death of a pedestrian by an autonomous vehicle, Reuters reported. The company said it was pausing its self-driving car operations in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto, The Guardian reported.

The police said the autonomous Volvo XC90 SUV had an operator behind the wheel and was travelling at about 65 km/hour when it hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg in Phoenix. Herzberg later died from her injuries in a hospital. Police said the car did not seem to slow down as it approached the woman.

“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” Uber said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”

Phoenix has allowed companies like Uber, Intel Corp., General Motors Co. and Waymo to organise self-driving car tests. In November, it was reported that Uber will buy 24,000 self-driving cars from vehicle manufacturing form Volvo.

In 2016, Tesla Motors had said that the driver of a car which was on Tesla’s autopilot mode had died after an accident in United States’ Florida.

 
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