Chrome Automation Extension has crashed

This error message...

along with this error message...

...is observed when ChromeDriver / Chrome is unable to load the default extensions.

Historically, the Automation Extension issue with Chrome Browser surfaced a couple of builds earlier then ChromeDriver v2.32 and you can find a detailed discussion in What has changed on Chromedriver 2.32 regarding loading of the automation extension?

Precisely, to address this error you may have to:

• Pass either/both of the flags:
  • disable-extensions flag
  • --no-sandbox flag

as argument/s when creating your WebDriver session. Special test environments sometimes cause Chrome to crash when the sandbox is enabled. For detaile watch this space as follows:

var option = new ChromeOptions(); option.AddArgument("disable-extensions"); option.AddArgument("--no-sandbox"); driver = new ChromeDriver(option); 

Additionally, you need to ensure that (whichever is applicable):

• JDK is upgraded to current levels JDK 8u222.
• Selenium is upgraded to current levels Version 3.141.59.
• ChromeDriver is updated to current ChromeDriver v78.0 level.
• Chrome is updated to current Chrome Version 78.0 level. (as per ChromeDriver v78.0 release notes)
• Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
• If your base Web Client version is too old, then uninstall it and install a recent GA and released version of Web Client.
• Take a System Reboot.
• Execute your @Test as non-root / non-administrator user.
• Always invoke driver.quit() within tearDown(){} method to close & destroy the WebDriver and Web Client instances gracefully.