Driver, not Uber, responsible for self-driving death
Uber may not be criminally liable for Arizona autonomous-driving deathA law official has decided that ride-hailing network Uber was not liable for the death of a woman struck by one of its self-driving prototypes in Arizona last year.
However, the Uber driver tasked with overseeing the prototype’s operation could be.
A woman, Elaine Herzberg, was killed when the Volvo-based Uber prototype failed to detect and react to her crossing a road in Tempe, Arizona, with her bicycle.
The 49-year-old woman died from her injuries after being rushed to hospital by ambulance.
Even though the car was operating in its autonomous mode, the driver supposed to be supervising it, Rafaela Vasquez, could be liable for charges, a county attorney declared.
According to the police report into the crash, Vasquez was live-streaming the American version of The Voice on her phone at the time of the crash.
“I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident", Tempe’s police chief, Sylvia Moir, said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway."
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