An Uber driver tried to make a speedy exit from a shopping center but instead ended up getting stuck on a flight of stairs.
The white Toyota Camry was lodged on a flight of stairs outside a Safeway supermarket in San Francisco on Monday.
Its driver, who has only been identified as Fred, is now blaming the Uber app for telling him to take the stairs, according to Business Insider.
An Uber driver mistakenly drove down a flight of stairs outside a Safeway supermarket in San Francisco on Monday. The San Francisco Police Department called it a ‘freak accident’
Fred told Business Insider that he’s been driving for Uber for less than a year.
Uber has been made aware of the incident and is investigating what happened during the accident.
The ride-hailing giant has confirmed that the driver was on the app at the time of the incident.
Additionally, Uber is continuing to reach out to the people involved in the accident to make sure they’re OK.
He said Safeway should make some changes to its parking lot in order to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.
Fred, who didn’t suffer any injuries from the accident, added that he would never drive in the area again.
The driver, who is only being identified as Fred, started working for Uber less than a year ago. He blamed the Uber app for telling him to drive down the stairs
It took a tow truck more than an hour to remove the car from the stairs. Officials tried to use a cable to safely lower the vehicle, when it snapped, sending the car crashing into a trash can
Two passengers were in the car at the time of the accident but neither sustained any injuries. The driver was on his way to pick up a third Uber Pool passenger when he took a nosedive down the stairs at about 1:23p.m. (PST)
Two passengers were in the car at the time of the accident but neither sustained any injuries.
The driver was on his way to pick up a third Uber Pool passenger when he took a nosedive down the stairs at about 1:23p.m. (PST).
Not long after the incident, some bystanders called a tow truck to move the marooned car.
But the car wasn’t actually freed from the grips of the concrete stairs until about 3:00p.m. (PST).
A tow truck attempted to safely remove the car from the steps using cable when suddenly it snapped, causing the car to plow into a public trash can, Business Insider reported.
As a result of the impact, the garbage can was knocked off of the screws anchoring it to the ground.
The San Francisco Police Department called the ordeal a ‘freak accident’ and said the driver was a senior a citizen, according to KRON 4.
Unsurprisingly, the ordeal became comedic fodder among Twitter users.
It seems that Fred isn’t the first person to mistake the stairs as a possible exit.
In 2014, a taxi cab driver mistakenly thought the stairs were an exit and the car took a nosedive.
The driver’s manager noted that the operator was ‘new to the job.’
Some are now saying the accident is evidence that self-driving cars aren’t quite ready for primetime.
Their point was that if humans can’t safely operate a vehicle, then we likely can’t trust an unmanned machine to do it yet either.
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 (stock image)
The comments come as Arizona governor Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges in the state.
That’s after one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles was involved in a fatal crash last week.
The incident is being regarded as the first fatal crash involving an autonomous car.
Uber immediately suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.