Police have released footage from the moments before a fatal crash involving one of Uber's self-driving cars and a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona.

Ms Herzberg was taken to a local hospital following the collision but died of her injuries. We're heartbroken by what happened this week, and our cars remain grounded.

Video from inside the vehicle also shows the human operator in the SUV appearing to look down at a cell phone before the crash.

Self-driving cars have been involved in previous road accidents, but Herzberg's death is thought to be the first caused by an autonomously-driven vehicle.

However, the department later released a statement later saying that the its role isn't to determine fault. The woman appears to be jaywalking as she is not in a crosswalk. So says Marta Thoma Hall, president of the company that supplied the car's lidar sensors, Velodyne Lidar Inc., reports Bloomberg.

Sam Abuelsmaid, an analyst for Navigant Research who also follow autonomous vehicles, said laser and radar systems can see in the dark much better than humans or cameras and that the pedestrian was well within the system's range. "There's only two possibilities: the sensors failed to detect her, or the decision-making software decided that this was not something to stop for".

"If you or I go to get our drivers license, we have to pass an eye exam and show some basic understanding of the rules of the road".

"We want to give (drivers) time to process and reflect", he said. "And Uber's human drivers had to intervene far more frequently than the drivers of competing autonomous vehicle projects".

The SUV's driver - Rafaela Vasquez - is seen looking down in the moments before the crash.

The accident leaves automakers and tech companies that have been testing vehicles in the real world grappling with what to do next. We're monitoring the situation and plan to resume testing at an appropriate time.

"The stage is now set for what will essentially be beta-testing on public roads with families as unwitting crash test dummies", the letter said.

Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is actively investigatingthe details of this incident that occurred on March 18th.

According to Toyota, it would restart its tests of semi-autonomous cars on closed circuits.

"The greater risk for the industry is that if people feel it is unsafe, or the testing is unsafe, you'll see a real backlash against this technology", Matthew Johnson-Roberson, co-director of the University of Michigan Ford Center for Autonomous Vehicles, told Reuters. They're safer than having a person behind the wheel because, in contrast to humans, driverless cars act more predictably and don't operate against their own interests, explained Rickert. However, there is a way back.

"The problem of complacent safety drivers is going to be a problem for every company", she added.