Uber may have disabled the standard collision-avoidance technology in its autonomous Volvo SUV before it hit and killed a pedestrian last week, according to the safety system manufacturer.

Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv Plc, which produces Volvo's radar and camera, said Uber may have disabled the safety feature so it could test and develop its own autonomous driving system.

Uber declined to comment.

Intel Corp.'s Mobileye, a supplier for Aptiv which makes chips and sensors for collision-avoidance system, said their own tests suggest that their systems would have detected the pedestrian one second before impact, if the technology had been enabled.

That second may have given the car time to slam on the breaks before it hit 49-year-old victim Elaine Herzberg, who was crossing the street, killing her.

The claim comes as Arizona's governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber's self-driving vehicle testing privileges in the state in the wake of the fatal collision and after it emerged that Uber replaced a policy of having two engineers pilot its self-driving cars, with solo 'safety drivers' who receive just three weeks of training, including a felon and a former Pizza Hut manager.

Uber disabled the standard collision-avoidance technology in its autonomous Volvo SUV before it hit and killed a pedestrian last week, according to the safety system manufacturer (pictured is the damaged car involved in the crash)

Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv Plc, which produces Volvo's radar and camera, said Uber may have disabled the safety feature so it could test and develop its own autonomous driving system

Aptiv were keen to distance themselves from the cause of the crash.

'We don't want people to be confused or think it was a failure of the technology that we supply for Volvo, because that's not the case,' Peterson told SF Gate, adding that the Volvo XC90's standard advanced driver-assistance system 'has nothing to do' with the Uber vehicle's autonomous driving system.

A Volvo spokesman declined to comment while awaiting a full investigation report.

In November, Uber agreed to buy 24,000 Volvo SUVs, which already feature a driver-assistance system with collision avoidance, lane-keeping aid and other safety features, onto which it was planning to add its own software for pilot-less driving.

The claim that Volvo's safety system was turned off comes after it emerged that Uber testing program was rife with issues, according to a New York Times report on Friday.

They included trouble driving through construction zones and requiring far more human intervention than competing companies.

Uber have also, quietly replaced a policy of having two engineers pilot its self-driving cars, with solo 'safety drivers' who receive just three weeks of training.

It has also insisted the 'safety drivers' - who include a felon and a former Pizza Hut supervisor - sign gag orders stopping them from talking about what happens when they are 'pilots' in the cars.

The move to water down the level of supervision of its fleet of autonomous Volvos was never publicized to authorities, its investors or the public in the cities where Uber is trialing the cars.

The video, released by Tempe police, shows the car traveling at about 40mph in a 45mph zone along a relatively empty roadway on Sunday night

In the seconds leading up to the collision, Rafaela Vasquez, 44, the safety driver who must take control of the car if there are any problems, is seen looking down and to the side

Seconds later, Vasquez grows alarmed when she realizes the car is about to hit the pedestrian. The footage appears to back up her claims that she was alert during the ride and nothing she could have done would have prevented the fatal collision

None are required to have an engineering or technical background, although all must pass a manual driving exam, submit to Uber's background check and complete a 21-day training course.

A history of issues with self-driving cars Uber road tests its self-driving car for the first time in Pittsburgh in September 2016. Phoenix is launched as the company's main testing ground with 400 employees and more than 150 autonomous cars in 2017. New Uber CEO Khosrowshahi is persuaded to keep the autonomous car project after visiting the Phoneix site in the summer of 2017. In September 2017, Uber's autonomous cars had driven one million miles in a year. In October 2017, Uber moved from two employees in every car to one. In December 2017, Uber missed its target to seek regulatory approval for a self-driving car service in Arizona. By March 2018, Uber was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per ‘intervention’. The firm has suspended its self-driving vehicle testing on public roads. The testing period has also seen issues such as cars having trouble driving through construction zones and requiring far more human intervention than competing companies. And in recent month, a driver was fired after falling asleep at the wheel and being spotted by a colleague. Another driver was seen air drumming while driving through an intersection. Advertisement

The truth about who is really behind the wheel emerged as DailyMail.com investigated how one of Uber's fleet of self-driving vehicles came to kill a pedestrian.

Homeless woman Elaine Herzberg, 49, died on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona, after being struck by a gray Volvo XC-90 SUV piloted by Rafaela Vasquez, 44.

Vasquez, a convicted felon who was sentenced to five years in jail in 2001 after being caught attempting to rob a branch of Blockbuster Video using an imitation firearm, told police she had attempted to brake but was unable to avoid the mother-of-two.

A video of the incident appears to show her looking repeatedly down at something inside the car before her jaw drops in horror as she finally spots the 49-year-old.

Herzberg, a three-time-married mother-of-two, was crossing busy thoroughfare North Mill Avenue and had already made it across three lanes and a wide central meridian when she was struck.

The incident is now being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, who are delving into why the car's Lidar laser detection system failed to spot Herzberg, among other things.

The death, the first caused to a pedestrian by a self-driving car, has also raised fresh questions for Uber – not least how a single 'safety driver' with limited training came to be behind the wheel.

At the launch of their self-driving car project in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Arizona, Uber showed off cars with two engineers up front and never challenged reports that claimed this would always be the case during the pilot scheme.

Homeless woman Elaine Herzberg (left), 49, died on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona, after being struck by a gray Volvo XC-90 SUV piloted by Rafaela Vasquez (right), 44. Vasquez, a convicted felon, told police she had attempted to brake but was unable to avoid the mother-of-two

But it admitted in a statement to DailyMail.com that it has now ditched that requirement and has switched to drivers with just 21 days of training and no technical background.

'After more than a year of thorough planning, development and safety reviews, we transitioned most operations to having a single vehicle operator, without a second person to collect feedback for our engineers using a laptop in the passenger seat,' the company said in the statement.

'This transition happened slowly as we worked with our vehicle operators to make sure they were well-trained and felt comfortable with this new job.

Uber BANNED from self-driving car tests in Arizona following fatal car crash Arizona governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber's self-driving vehicle testing privileges on Monday in the wake of a pedestrian fatality in a Phoenix suburb last week. Mr Ducey said in a letter to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage showed the company's 'unquestionable failure'. The crash raised concerns about the San Francisco-based company's ability to safely test its technology in Arizona, he warned. He said he expects public safety to be the top priority for those who operate self-driving cars. 'The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation,' Mr Ducey said. Mr Ducey said in a letter (pictured) to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage showed the company's 'unquestionable failure' The move by the Republican governor marks a major step back from his embrace of self-driving vehicles. He previously welcomed Uber and other autonomous vehicle companies to use Arizona as a place for testing under few, if any, regulations. In early March, he authorized self-driving vehicle companies to run tests without a person in the car to act as a safety operator. Uber immediately suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. If Uber resumes its self-driving vehicle testing, the governor's decision means the company will still be prevented from doing so in Arizona, said Mr Ducey's spokesman Daniel Scarpinato. Uber released a statement that said it will 'continue to help investigators in any way we can, and we'll keep a dialogue open with the Governor's office to address any concerns they have.' In Arizona, companies such as Uber only need to carry minimum liability insurance to operate self-driving cars. They are not required to track crashes or report any information to the state. Scarpinato said Monday that Ducey considers self-driving vehicles a way to improve public safety and limit road fatalities. 'We see real long-term benefits to it, and we want to know more about this incident, whether it was an outlier or not,' he said. But he wouldn't say if the governor regretted not having state reporting requirements that could have given advance warning of the problems with Uber's program. California requires added insurance, reports of all accidents regardless of the severity and an annual report showing how many times operators had to take over from the computers. Scarpinato called Mr Ducey's action 'aggressive' but declined to say if the governor was reconsidering requiring more oversight. 'I think we have prudent, responsible regulation,' Scarpinato said.'I think you saw with today's action is that we are all about public safety and accountability and public safety.' Advertisement

'We decided to make this transition because after testing, we felt we could accomplish the task of the second person - annotating each intervention with information about what was happening around the car - by looking at our logs after the vehicle had returned to base, rather than in real time.

'We continue to use two operators for tests in which detailed in-vehicle feedback is important. It was not and never has been the role of the passenger-seat operator to maintain the vehicle's safety.

'That is and always has been the clear and primary responsibility of the operator behind the wheel.'

On Friday, the company claimed to have 'introduced this' change to the local press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last Fall.

But after being informed that no contemporary news reports could be found, Uber admitted that the move had never been publicized either via a press release or a public announcement.

Indeed, a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette dating from September 2017 again refers to 'two technicians' being at the wheel.

Uber made last week's statement after first falsely claiming to DailyMail.com that it had never suggested two engineers would always be present in each car.

Friday's statement also points the finger of blame in the death of Herzberg at Vasquez, a felon who had committed a series of driving offenses - all of which was known to Uber when she was hired.

She has not responded to requests for comment from DailyMail.com.

However, DailyMail.com has also learned that Uber requires all of its drivers, including those in the regular fleet, to sign non-disclosure agreements - meaning they would face financial penalties for publicly discussing any safety concerns they might have.

When DailyMail.com approached another driver, Patrick Murphy, 49, of Chandler, Arizona, who had been involved in a previous non-fatal crash, he declined to comment citing the NDA.

The disclosures over the level of supervision of its self-driving cars and the secrecy Uber has insisted on for its drivers are likely to be seized on by lawyers for the family of the dead woman.

Rafaela Vasquez was behind the wheel of the self-driving Volvo SUV which struck Herzberg. Police say she stepped in front of it with her bicycle (shown above next to the car)

The revelations are also likely to be looked upon with interest by regulatory authorities and Uber investors, as well as the growing number of advocacy groups concerned about safety standards.

Rosemary Shahan of Sacramento-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS) claims Uber does not do enough to protect the public and slammed the company for opposing proposed Federal safety measures for self-driving cars.

'I think Uber has a real contempt for the law and a very high disregard for public safety, Shahan, 68, told DailyMail.com.

'They did not even screen out cars that are subject to a Federal safety recall in their fleet.'

She added: 'They're trying to do this without any safety standards – they're even opposing just a basic standard saying a car should be secure from being hacked.

'The FBI has been warning them they're very concerned about the potential for criminals or terrorists to hack into these cars and weaponize them – to deliver bombs or potentially drive them off the road or over a bridge.

'But Uber and the auto manufacturers are saying, no, no, no, trust us - we will self-certify that our cars are OK.

'They give a lot of lip service to safety but if they really cared about safety they wouldn't be allowing their drivers to drive around in these recall cars that they know are unsafe.

'That's just playing Russian Roulette with their customers' lives.'

The watering down of the two engineers requirement and the imposition of NDAs took place when the company was still led by Travis Kalanick.

Forty-one-year-old Kalanick was forced to resign from Uber last June after a series of scandals rocked the firm – including accusations of sexual harassment and a 'toxic' workplace culture.

In February 2017, former Uber engineer Susan J Fowler penned an explosive blog post that claimed, among other things, she had been pestered for sex by a manager.

The watering down of the two engineers requirement and the imposition of NDAs took place when the company was still led by Travis Kalanick (pictured), who stepped down from the company last year

This is not the first time Uber has grounded its fleet of self-driving cars. In March 2017, an autonomous Volvo SUV (pictured on its side) got into accident when the other vehicle 'failed to yield' while making a left turn, according to police

Ten days later, senior executive Amit Singhal was forced to quit after he failed to disclose he had been subject to a sexual harassment complaint while working for Google.

Then, a video showing Kalanick berating an Uber driver as he was being transported from a Super Bowl party emerged, which also captured the 41-year-old boasting: 'I make sure every year is a hard year.

'That's kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it's easy, I'm not pushing hard enough.'

Less than a month later, Kalanick's ex-girlfriend Gabi Holzwarth publicly revealed he and five other Uber employees had visited an escort bar in Seoul, South Korea, in mid-2014.

On June 6, 2017, 20 Uber employees were fired after a law firm conducted an investigation into 215 staff complaints dating from 2012.

A day later, another executive was canned for obtaining the medical records of a woman raped by an Uber driver in India in 2014 and sharing them with Kalanick.

Kalanick, who had initially announced he was taking 'an indefinite leave of absence' from the company, eventually stepped down on June 21.

Uber, which was launched in 2009, has also previously been accused of targeting reporters who produce negative reports about the company, and of operating a 'Grayball' system that makes it impossible for certain individuals – including law enforcement officers – to use the app.

The company's self-driving car scheme has also been hit by scandal, including a lawsuit filed by Waymo – the autonomous vehicle company set up by Google – accusing it of filching trade secrets.

In the lawsuit, filed in March 2017, Waymo said one of its former engineers who became chief of Uber's self-driving car project took thousands of confidential documents with him.

The case was settled last month in San Francisco after Uber agreed to hand over $245million-worth of its shares to Waymo's parent company and said it would not use any of Waymo's technology in future designs.