Calls to further regulate autonomous vehicle testing heighten.
A woman has died after sustaining injuries from being struck by a fully-autonomous Uber test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona today. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle outside of a pedestrian crossing in the Pheonix suburb on Sunday night when she was hit by the Uber vehicle, which was travelling at 65km/h.
The vehicle, a Volvo XC90 outfitted with Uber’s autonomous testing apparatus and software, had a human supervisor present on-board and behind the wheel. Rafael Vasquez, 44, has been cooperative with the authorities, and is said to have shown no signs of impairment.
Volvo has denied responsibility in the accident, as its software was not in control of the vehicle at the time. Uber has responded in a statement saying:
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.” — Uber
Following the accident, Uber has suspended all of its autonomous vehicle testing throughout North America. This is the second major accident for Uber’s autonomous driving program, after another XC90 was knocked onto its side after a driver failed to yield to the car at an intersection (Uber was absolved of blame in that mishap).
According to Tempe sergeant Ronald Elcock, who has seen footage of the collision, Herzberg appeared to have stepped in the path of the vehicle with her bicycle, with the Uber vehicle not responding to her presence, without any indication of slowing/braking for her. This highlights one of the biggest challenges for fully-autonomous cars: Interacting with erratic, and unpredictable human behaviour.
“The robot cars cannot accurately predict human behaviour. And the real problem comes in the interaction between humans and robot vehicles. The technology is not ready for [taking over public roads] yet, and this, sadly, proves it.” — John M. Simpson, Project Director (Privacy & Technology), Consumer Watchdog
This is the first-ever recorded death of a pedestrian being struck by an autonomous car. The first death caused directly by autopilot was attributed to Tesla back in 2016, when a Tesla Model S in Autopilot failed to detect an articulated lorry making a turn across a motorway. In that incident, the Tesla saloon drove under the trailer at full pelt, killing its sole 40-year old occupant instantly. The company has since underlined the ‘beta testing’ aspect of the Autopilot system, to absolve them of blame for any further incidents.
The Arizona accident will likely set autonomous driving back by a fair bit, with the argument that robotic cars are superior to human drivers likely to come under intense scrutiny. Hopefully, in response to this, automakers will adopt a more cautious approach when it comes to hands-off driving technology.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you more updates as they come.
