One of Uber's autonomous vehicles has run over a woman, who was crossing an area not delimited for that purpose, causing her death, minutes after the accident.
We already have the first big mess in the history of autonomous vehicles and that is, the first death of a person due to an autonomous vehicle is confirmed. It appears that the accident was due to Uber's autonomous vehicle, which struck a woman in Tempe, Arizona, causing her death in the hospital, minutes after the accident. The information is scarce and quite confusing, although, it has been announced that the vehicle was in autonomous mode with a safety driver. The accident was due to the woman crossing the street outside a crosswalk.
Logically, this is not a dish of good taste and Uber has suspended the tests of the autonomous vehicles that were carried out in Tempe, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. They have also said that they will fully cooperate with the authorities to clarify everything that happened. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Twitter:
Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona. We're thinking of the victim's family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened. https://t.co/cwTCVJjEuz
- dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) March 19th 2018
El local media ABC, says that the vehicle was circulating at night, specifically in the early hours of Monday in the United States, near Mill Avenue and Curry Road. After the impact, the woman was rushed to hospital, where she died minutes after the accident. The local police has been the one who has confirmed that the vehicle was in autonomous mode and that it had a security driver, who should have been attentive to precisely avoid the accident.
Arun Sundararajan, a professor at the New York University business school, said: 'We are entering a phase where we are still learning the efficacy of autonomous vehicles. Every time we launch a new technology, we are presented with a lot of unforeseen situations'
The Tempe Police Department, for its part, have said that: 'On March 18, 2018 at approximately 10 pm, Tempe police responded to the report of a traffic collision on Curry Road and Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona . The vehicle involved was one of Uber's autonomous vehicles. It was in autonomous mode at the time of the collision, with a safety operator behind the wheel. The vehicle was traveling northbound just south of Curry Road when a woman walking out of the crosswalk crossed the road from west to east and was struck by the Uber vehicle. The woman was identified as Elaine Herzberg, 49. Herzberg was transported to a local area hospital where she died of her injuries. Uber is collaborating and this remains an active investigation. '
The National Transportation Safety Board of the United States has confirmed that they have initiated an investigation into the accident, in addition to sending a team of investigators, who would already be on their way to Tempe to work with local authorities. This is the second time an investigation has been conducted on autonomous vehicles. In May 2016, they already had to investigate the death of a driver who was in a Tesla Model S, when using the Autopilot mode.
NTSB sending team to investigate Uber crash in Tempe, Arizona. More to eat.
- NTSB_Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) March 19th 2018
Uber is not the first complicated situation to face, since they are the ones that have suffered the most accidents since the beginning of their tests. Already in December 2016, they were penalized because their vehicle did not respect a red traffic light and it was detected that the software had a very serious fault, not recognizing the bike lanes. In March 2017 another Uber vehicle suffered a serious accident without victims, due to the vehicle going at high speed. In all cases, autonomous driving was active.
