Uber reportedly disabled safety systems on the autonomous Volvo XC90 that killed a pedestrian Stateside last week, according to the makers of the car's sensors.
"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," Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv, told Bloomberg.
Uber declined to comment to The Register, though it did confirm that it wrote the software the car was running. Aptiv, a UK-based maker of car parts including radars and cameras, did not respond to our enquiries. The company was formerly known as Delphi Automotive. In 2015 Delphi stated, and later denied, that a vehicle it was using for self-driving technology trials was involved in a near-miss with a rival car operated by Google.
Volvo told Bloomberg it was waiting for the accident report to be published by American authorities before it would comment.
Uber's modified XC90s are fitted with front, side and rear-facing cameras "watching for braking vehicles, crossing pedestrians, traffic lights, and signage," according to a document produced by the controversial taxi app firm's Advanced Technologies Group. The cars are also fitted with a top-mounted LIDAR sensor with all-round coverage.