Toyota to suspend US public road test of self-driving cars

March 21, 2018

New York- Toyota Motor Corp. plans to suspend its public road test of self-driving cars in the United States for the time being, company officials said Tuesday.

The test suspension comes after a recent accident in Arizona, in which a self-driving vehicle of U.S. ride-hailing service company Uber Technologies Inc. hit and killed a pedestrian during a test run on a public road.

Toyota has not decided yet when to resume its test.

The Toyota Research Institute, a US unit of the leading Japanese automaker, is in charge of the test in California and Michigan. The institute conducts research and development on artificial intelligence.

The institute said that it made the decision to suspend the test in consideration of psychological effects on staff personnel riding on self-driving vehicles although the cause of the Uber vehicle accident and its impact on the industry are yet to be known.

While Toyota and Uber are in tie-up relations, there is no technological link between their self-driving vehicles, according to the institute. Jiji Press