Arizona Governor Helped Make State 'Wild West' For Driverless Cars

An Uber driverless car heads out for a test drive in San Francisco in December 2016, the same month that the company halted testing there and moved it to Arizona. An Uber driverless car heads out for a test drive in San Francisco in December 2016, the same month that the company halted testing there and moved it to Arizona. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey began a push three years ago to attract makers of self-driving cars to the state and actively wooed Uber away from California as a venue for testing those vehicles. Shortly after his election in 2015, the governor signed an executive order supporting the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles that he said was about "innovation, economic growth, and most importantly, public safety." Now the "public safety" part of that order has been thrown into question and Arizona's willingness to become a testing ground for emerging driverless vehicles has come into sharp focus after Sunday's incident in which a self-driving Volvo SUV operated by Uber struck and killed a 49-year-old woman who was walking her bicycle in Tempe.