Avride, the self-driving startup that operates vehicles on Uber $UBER's platform, is under federal investigation after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cited 16 crashes involving its autonomous vehicles in Texas.
Federal regulators said Friday that Avride's vehicles displayed signs of excessive assertiveness and insufficient capability — conduct they warned "may also constitute traffic safety violations" — with some incidents leaving property damaged and one person mildly hurt.
When regulators reviewed crash footage, they saw vehicles cutting into lanes with other drivers, moving forward without stopping for traffic ahead, and hitting stationary objects that stuck out into the road.
Avride has offered passenger services in Dallas since December, where many of the incidents took place. The company uses Hyundai's Ioniq 5 platform and said last month that its fleet stands at 200 vehicles, with dozens more being added each month.
In a statement, Avride expressed willingness to cooperate, saying it welcomes "the opportunity to provide the agency with a deeper understanding of our safety protocols and technology." The startup noted that "the vehicle was under the supervision of a trained safety operator on board" in each instance, and pointed out that low speeds were typical and that "many of the events were precipitated by the actions of other road users." It said it has since "implemented targeted technical and operational mitigations to address our findings from each reported incident."
According to NHTSA, investigators will examine how serious the identified risks are to both occupants and the broader public, looking at the technical systems and operational procedures involved.
Probing autonomous technology is not new territory for the agency, which has launched a number of inquiries into both driverless systems and driver-assistance technology over the past several years. Neither Uber nor Hyundai offered comment.