Story updated on March 22 to include new details following release of dashcam video by the Tempe Police Department.

The launch of a multi-city research effort in Texas early last year boosted the state as a frontrunner in the testing of autonomous vehicles.

But after the death of the Arizona woman who was hit and killed this week by a self-driving Uber car, the national dialogue has focused on whether the technology is truly ready for prime time.

A video of the incident released Wednesday by the Tempe Police Department shows the man in the driver's seat of the autonomous vehicle looking down for several seconds. Moments later, a woman with a bicycle can be seen walking in front of the car as the man looks up in shock

While researchers and transportation officials acknowledge the tragedy, they are also pushing back against critics of the technology. There’s risk with any new innovation, they say, worrying that the negative attention from what is being deemed the first self-driving vehicle-related death could curtail efforts to make U.S. roads safer.

“The worst thing we can do is have everyone pucker up and retrench,” said Paul Brubaker, president and CEO of The Alliance for Transportation Innovation. “We’re on the cusp of being able to accelerate deployment in a way that will transform society for the better, in a way that can be measured,” he said.

That sentiment was shared by Christopher Poe, assistant director of connected and automated transportation strategy at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “Humans have not been doing a good at job operating vehicles. There is promise that the technology can operate far superior to people,” he said.

Texas was one of 10 states chosen by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2017 as “proving grounds” where companies and public agencies can test automated technology in cars, trucks and buses.

Right now, Arlington is the only place in the state where the technology is being conducted in a public space, explained Poe, who is leading the statewide project that involves five cities.

“To realize a future vision where technology is helping, we purposely set up a systematic way to test,” Poe said. San Antonio, Houston, Austin and El Paso have identified local sites where the deployment of technology could be explored, but it would first happen in a controlled environment.

Arlington uses autonomous shuttles as part of a pilot program called Milo. The shuttle moves at 10 to 12 mph on average and is limited to an off-street path in the entertainment district.

“The transportation industry is changing extremely quickly,” said Alicia Winkelblech, the city’s assistant director of strategic planning. “We are researching autonomous technology so we understand what it means for our community and how we should prepare for it.”

The Texas Department of Transportation said Wednesday that it is monitoring the Arizona investigation, but there are no plans to pause state efforts at this time.

Swift reaction

Some, like Toyota Motor Corp. are temporarily suspending some of their autonomous vehicle testing over fears that the Arizona incident "may have an emotional effect" on its test drivers.

Toyota, whose North American headquarters is in Plano, had been conducting on-road testing with self-driving vehicles in Michigan and California. And in January, the manufacturer announced plans to work with its North Texas-based neighbor Pizza Hut to test autonomous pizza delivery in several regions in the early 2020s.

In response to the death in Arizona, Uber decided earlier this week to temporarily pull its self-driving cars off the roads in four cities.

Still, as the nation watches the investigation unfold, industry analysts and others worry that the high-profile nature of the incident could damage public perception.

"Most people are still highly skeptical about the safety of autonomous vehicles, so this kind of tragedy is a huge setback,” said analyst Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds. “Automakers will not only need to re-evaluate their testing procedures ... but also convince wary consumers that the benefits of this technology will outweigh the risks," she said.

The human factor

Suspending research frustrates Brubaker, who said fatalities are inevitable, and that there’s a level of risk people must accept to make “the most dangerous thing people do every day” (or, driving) safer.

A report released in October from the U.S. Department of Transportation found that 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016, which represented an increase of 5.6 percent from the previous calendar year.

Drunk driving, speeding, distracted driving and incidents involving pedestrians were among the top causes for the deaths. There were 3,582 vehicle-related deaths in Texas in 2016, a 2.3 percent increase.

“Any time anybody dies, it’s tragic. But until we really know the facts (of the Arizona case), we need to be cautious about casting aspersions on the safety of autonomous vehicles,” Brubaker said.

“We’re letting perfection be the enemy of the good.”

Researchers who ask “what could possibly go wrong” before new innovations are deployed, say there’s still much to be learned about the the interaction between the technology and human behavior, or the human factor. Mike Manser, a senior research scientist at Texas A&M, says this is particularly a concern with “partial” automation.

One of the main questions about the Arizona incident is why the safety driver, employed to oversee the car’s operations in autonomous mode, didn't do something when the car failed to stop.

While Manser can’t speak directly to that case, he thinks about it in terms of what is known about human behavior.

“We know that when human beings have free resources, they are going to find something to do, like read the paper or text,” he said. Unlike an automated airplane, where a pilot may have minutes to respond, a person on a roadway may only have seconds to hit the brakes when vehicle technology seems off.

“We’re trying to help drivers drive more safely. Automation is leading them into a situation where they may become more complacent. There are significant issues that have not been resolved that need attention before this is put out in a public space.”

Poe noted that while the state has received several inquiries from the manufacturers of automated vehicles, whose products could be tested in Texas, the efforts are still just in discussion mode.

“Nothing is mature enough to start testing yet,” he said.