Autonomous shuttle passenger injured following sudden stop

A 76-year-old passenger travelling on an autonomous shuttle has been injured after the vehicle came to an unexpected stop, says KUTV. Gene Petrie, an employee at the Utah State Tax Commission, was thrown from his seat and hit the handrail near the door, resulting in bruising and black eyes. Charlie Roberts, spokesman for the Utah State Tax Commission, is quoted saying: “Out of the clear blue, it suddenly stopped, and it wasn’t a slow-down stop. It was a sudden stop.” Petrie went to the hospital f
August 6, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

A 76-year-old passenger travelling on an autonomous shuttle has been injured after the vehicle came to an unexpected stop, says %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external KUTV false https://kutv.com/news/local/first-injury-on-utahs-driverless-shuttle-during-unexpected-stop false false%>.

Gene Petrie, an employee at the Utah State Tax Commission, was thrown from his seat and hit the handrail near the door, resulting in bruising and black eyes.

Charlie Roberts, spokesman for the Utah State Tax Commission, is quoted saying: “Out of the clear blue, it suddenly stopped, and it wasn’t a slow-down stop. It was a sudden stop.”

Petrie went to the hospital for treatment and returned to work the next day. He is a state worker travelling on the shuttle near the Multi Agency State Office Building while the 1904 Utah Department of Transportation (UDoT) is testing the technology.

John Gleason, UDoT spokesman, says: “As soon as this happened, we took the shuttle out of service immediately for about 24 hours and ran a bunch of tests on it, ran through the emergency stops, looked at the software, looked at the sensors.”

The cause of the sudden stop is unknown as no one noticed a pedestrian or obstacle that may have tripped a sensor.

“You hate to see an incident like that, but we’re confident in the overall safety of the shuttle and we’ve taken a lot of precautions to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again,” Gleason adds.

The UDoT has reduced the shuttle’s speed from 12 miles per hour to 9. The operator is now more frequently warning people that abrupt stops are possible.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Worries as Huawei given role in UK’s 5G network
    April 24, 2019
    Alarm has been expressed by MPs over the UK government’s decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to work on the UK’s 5G network. Prime minister Theresa May has banned Huawei from supplying ‘core’ parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure – but is believed to have given the green light for it to help deliver what are being called ‘non-core’ parts. As well as being for mobile phones, 5G is the technology which will be used to improve connectivity of autonomous vehicles and traffic controls. However, there ar
    Read More
  • Hawaii wins more than $400,000 in EPA Grants
    November 27, 2018
    The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $411,578 in Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) grants to Hawaii to help curb pollution from diesel vehicle sources. The EPA’s West Coast Collaborative administers the DERA programme. This partnership, which combines the EPA’s Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest Regions, utilises public and private funds in a bid to reduce emissions. The Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) intends to use the grant to replace two diesel transit buses with batter
    Read More
  • RAC Foundation: UK drivers receive 12 million penalties annually
    October 25, 2017
    Up to 12 million driving license holders receive a penalty notice each year – the equivalent of one every 2.5 seconds; meaning as many as a third (30%) of Britain's 40 million drivers now receive a penalty notice annually. The findings come from the Automated Road Traffic Enforcement: Regulation, Governance and Use - for the RAC Foundation by Dr Adam Snow, a lecturer in criminology at Liverpool Hope University. The penalty notices include the Fixed Penalty Notice (a criminal penalty issued
    Read More
  • ITS America ‘disappointed’ at Toyota V2X decision
    May 9, 2019
    Trade association ITS America has expressed disappointment that Toyota is pausing its Vehicle to Everything (V2X) deployment in the US. The Japanese car maker sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) saying that a lack of activity from other manufacturers on V2X – plus uncertainty over the regulatory position – had led to the decision. In a statement, ITS America said it was ‘disappointed’, adding: “We appreciate Toyota’s leadership and commitment to life-saving V2X technology.” Th
    Read More

Highlighted Content