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Driver of Autonomous Uber Was Streaming The Voice at the Time of Fatal Crash

In March this year, Uber was dealt a serious blow when one of its self-driving vehicles in the Arizona program hit and killed a jaywalker in Tempe. As it turns out, the driver was at fault.
Rafaela Vasquez was the backup driver in Uber self-driving Volvo, when it killed a jaywalker in Arizona 84 photos
Photo: everipedia
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Uber requires a backup driver in any of its autonomous vehicles, but said driver is of no use if he or she isn’t paying attention to the road. And that’s exactly what happened on the night of the accident, a report cited by The Guardian reveals.

Rafaela Vasquez, who at the time went by Rafael and had not transitioned to female, was streaming The Voice on Hulu when she ran into Elaine Herzberg with the Volvo car, as she was crossing the street at an unmarked area. Herzberg was hit at under 44mph but the impact was forceful enough to cause life-threatening injuries.

Had Vasquez been paying attention to road, the crash could have easily been avoided, an inquest has revealed. The Tempe Police Department obtained logs from Hulu, revealing that she had been streaming The Voice for almost an hour at the time of the accident.

Dashcam footage shows her looking down, clearly not paying attention to the road. The investigation has revealed that she looked up half a second before the crash, after almost 6 seconds of looking down. She started braking the Uber only after the moment of impact by almost a second: Uber had disabled the emergency braking system.

Police have also released footage and photos from the scene, to go with the report. As of the time of writing, Uber has not commented on the findings.

To make matters worse, after the crash, it was revealed that Vasquez was a convicted felon: she was arrested for attempted robbery in 2001 after trying to rob a Blockbuster store with a fake gun, and was convicted for unsworn falsification in 1999. She served 4 years behind bars as a man.

Vasquez is now facing a vehicular manslaughter charge.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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