Photo: bbc.com
In March 2018, an Uber self-driving car became the world’s first vehicle of its kind to be involved in a fatal crash, when it ran over a cyclist walking her bike across the road, in an unmarked area in Tempe, Arizona.
On November 19, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will finalize its investigation into the case and make recommendations to Uber. A 400-page report is already available online, and Uber tells Bloomberg that they plan to follow the recommendations by the letter, including reinstating the rule of having 2 safety drivers at all times in their driverless vehicles.
On the night in question, there was but one safety driver / human operator at the wheel of the Volvo XC90, but she failed to act in the emergency, as she should have. She had been streaming a television show on one of her phones and had not been paying attention to the road – so she braked only after the impact.
Local prosecutors are still considering pressing manslaughter charges against her, but have decided against prosecuting Uber as an entity. The NTSB report also stops short of laying the blame at the company’s door, but it does say the on-board computer was not programmed to handle jaywalkers. The sensors did see the victim, even though it was dark and she was crossing the street illegally, but the computer “thought” it could continue driving safely. She was deemed a false positive.
The NTSB found plenty of “safety and design lapses” which acted against preventing an entirely preventable crash. The subsequent police investigation found that even an impaired driver could have stopped some feet away from the victim, had they been paying attention to the road, so this is not a question of “it could have happened to anyone, no one could have prevented this,” as it was claimed earlier on.
According to the report, the Volvo’s sensors saw the victim 5.6 seconds before impact, classifying her as different objects several times and recalculating a trajectory each time. Eventually, the computer ruled there was no risk of impact. Because Uber had disabled the Volvo auto-braking system and the driver wasn’t paying attention to road herself, the car fatally struck the woman.
The NTSB also says that the test program Uber was rolling in Tempe at the time of the crash (and which has been shut down since) failed to check various safeguards: it lacked a safety plan, dedicated safety staff and operating procedures.
For its part, Uber pledges not just to follow all official recommendations but also to be more mindful on the issue of safety. With its new autonomous program underway in Dallas, Texas, Uber is promising safer (and cheaper) cars – and attentive human operators for at least another while.
On the night in question, there was but one safety driver / human operator at the wheel of the Volvo XC90, but she failed to act in the emergency, as she should have. She had been streaming a television show on one of her phones and had not been paying attention to the road – so she braked only after the impact.
Local prosecutors are still considering pressing manslaughter charges against her, but have decided against prosecuting Uber as an entity. The NTSB report also stops short of laying the blame at the company’s door, but it does say the on-board computer was not programmed to handle jaywalkers. The sensors did see the victim, even though it was dark and she was crossing the street illegally, but the computer “thought” it could continue driving safely. She was deemed a false positive.
The NTSB found plenty of “safety and design lapses” which acted against preventing an entirely preventable crash. The subsequent police investigation found that even an impaired driver could have stopped some feet away from the victim, had they been paying attention to the road, so this is not a question of “it could have happened to anyone, no one could have prevented this,” as it was claimed earlier on.
According to the report, the Volvo’s sensors saw the victim 5.6 seconds before impact, classifying her as different objects several times and recalculating a trajectory each time. Eventually, the computer ruled there was no risk of impact. Because Uber had disabled the Volvo auto-braking system and the driver wasn’t paying attention to road herself, the car fatally struck the woman.
The NTSB also says that the test program Uber was rolling in Tempe at the time of the crash (and which has been shut down since) failed to check various safeguards: it lacked a safety plan, dedicated safety staff and operating procedures.
For its part, Uber pledges not just to follow all official recommendations but also to be more mindful on the issue of safety. With its new autonomous program underway in Dallas, Texas, Uber is promising safer (and cheaper) cars – and attentive human operators for at least another while.
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