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The operator of a self-driving Uber that hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe last year was the primary cause of the accident because she was watching "The Voice" on her phone instead of the road. That's the finding from the National Transportation Safety Board, although the federal agency identified several other contributory causes in its final report submitted on Tuesday. The board also recommended new federal and state requirements for testing autonomous cars on public roads. Beyond the driver, the board found plenty of blame to go around for the nation's first pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car. Officials called out Uber's lax safety culture, the pedestrian who was high on methamphetamine, and the state of Arizona's lack of safety requirements for the cars.

Uber will begin testing its self-driving cars in Dallas, Texas in November, the company announced Tuesday. The vehicles will be operated by human drivers in downtown Dallas to start out, collecting mapping data and capturing driving scenarios which Uber's engineers will then reproduce in simulation. This doesn't mean Uber is planning to offer trips in its self-driving cars or even perform self-driving tests in Dallas. "The data we collect will inform our next steps -- we may not look to test our self-driving system in Dallas immediately following this first round of data gathering," Austin Geidt, head of Uber ATG strategy, said in a Medium post. "While we are certainly excited by this possibility, we are also committed to ensuring that every mile we drive on public roads contributes meaningfully to our development work."

Uber has hired a former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) official to join its autonomous vehicle team, Reuters reports. Nat Beuse will be joining the company after serving as the NHTSA's associate administrator of vehicle safety research, and he's doing so at a critical time when Uber is working to mend its safety image following a fatal crash involving one of its self-driving cars. "Uber's approach to self-driving vehicles is an opportunity to make a difference in the safe commercialization of this revolutionary technology, which I've spent a considerable amount of time working with in recent years," Beuse said in a statement. "It's clear to me that the team here is dedicated to prioritizing safety." In March, an autonomous Uber SUV, with a safety driver behind the wheel, struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, causing Uber to suspend all of its self-driving tests across the country.

Tempe, Arizona police released video of the Uber Self-Driving SUV crash that killed a woman on Sunday. It shows a woman push her bicycle on a dark road and the human back-up driver's reaction.This video includes images some may find disturbing. Although there as yet been no timetable for Uber's return to testing in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi suggested it would be very soon. "We've got to get back on the road, but we have to be absolutely satisfied that we're getting back on the road in the safest manner possible," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the Code conference here Wednesday. The chief executive said that after further tests confirm their cars can operate safely, "we will get back on the road over the summer," he added.

This week, Uber announced that it will cease operations in Arizona and revive its self-driving tests in Pittsburgh. This, apparently, was news to the mayor of Pittsburgh, who issued a press release stating that he hadn't been informed of that announcement. "I made it clear to Uber officials after the Arizona crash that a full federal investigation had to be completed, with strong rules for keeping streets safe, before I would agree with the company to begin testing on Pittsburgh streets again," he said in the release. But, considering the NTSB released its preliminary report on that fatal Arizona crash today, it makes sense that Uber would want to continue its self-driving tests, which have been on hold since the accident. Mayor William Peduto had two conditions before he would agree to allowing Uber to test on Pittsburgh streets again: the computer-operated vehicles would never exceed a speed of 25 mph in the city, regardless of what posted speed limits were, and the company would use its app to alert drivers when they are exceeding speed limits when humans are in control.

Electric carmaker Tesla says a vehicle involved in a fatal crash in California was in Autopilot mode, raising further questions about the safety of self-driving technology. One of the company's Model X cars crashed into a roadside barrier and caught fire on 23 March. Tesla says the 38-year-old driver, who died shortly afterwards, had activated Autopilot moments before the accident. But they did not say whether the system had detected the concrete barrier. "The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive," a statement on the company's website said.

China now has 93 pilot projects involving self-driving cars and shared-driving services nationwide, according to KPMG LLP. Some auto-industry leaders warn that developers may be moving too quickly toward testing on public roads. "It has to be based on solid research--you can't just put some sensors on top of a car," Li Shufu, the chairman of auto maker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., said at an autonomous-driving conference in Beijing on Wednesday. The government should intervene, Mr. Li said, and keep unqualified aspirants off the road. In January, it published a draft blueprint for the country's strategic development of autonomous driving as part of a broader plan to dominate the artificial-intelligence business.

NVIDIA will suspend all of its public road self-driving tests following Uber's fatal accident, a company spokesperson has told Recode. The company supplies chips for Uber's self-driving vehicles and it says that it needs to find out more about last week's crash. "The accident was tragic," a spokesperson said in a statement. "It's a reminder of how difficult [self-driving car] technology is and that it needs to be approached with extreme caution and the best safety technologies." During his keynote today at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, CEO Jensen Huang said the fatal accident reminded the company how important safety is when it comes to this type of technology.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's capital city has given the green light to tech giant Baidu Inc to test self-driving cars on city streets, an important step as the country looks to bolster its position in the global race for autonomous vehicles.