To err is human, but to watch a TV show? Moronic.
As investigations continue to look into the accident where an autonomous Uber prototype car struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, more details have emerged following the publishing of a report by the Tempe police department. It seems that investigations have uncovered that Uber’s safety driver, Rafaela Vasquez, may have been engaged on her phone in the minutes leading up to the fateful incident, when the autonomous Volvo she was travelling in collided with a crossing pedestrian.
It seems that Vasquez had had the popular talent show ‘The Voice’ streaming on her smartphone via content streaming service Hulu for around 40-minutes leading up to the accident, with the stream ending at 9.59pm. That time is noteworthy as that is about the time that the Volvo XC90 prototype car (outfitted with Uber’s autonomous safety gear, with its own safety systems disabled) struck Elaine Herzberg, the aforementioned pedestrian.
Through the course of the investigation, police have ascertained that Vasquez looked down at her phone no less than 204 times though the course of the cars’ journey, before the car struck Herzberg. According to the report released by the Tempe police, they post that Vasquez could have braked the car some 43-metres before it struck and killed Herzberg; Had she done so, the XC90 would have been able to pull up some 10-metres sooner, sparing Herzberg her life.
This could result in a vehicular manslaughter charge levelled against Vasquez, though the police have not yet done so. The report did however acknowledge that Herzberg had crossed the road “unlawfully at a location other than a marked crosswalk,” though to what end that’ll be used is unknown. The police have said that the accident was “entirely avoidable” if Vasquez had not been distracted at the wheel.
There’s a certain irony in these latest developments, that Elaine Herzberg’s death at the hands of an autonomous vehicle (or of its operator, depending on your opinion) came due to the most human of flaws: Distraction. While opinions regarding self-driving cars are at a record-low thanks to the Tempe incident and several others (cough Tesla cough cough), perhaps the more far-sighted will consider how, when perfected, an autonomous driving system would have likely averted this incident better than the distracted human behind the wheel could have.
Carmakers and tech companies will no doubt take a far more cautious approach to the matter going forwards, and while sentiment surrounding autonomous vehicles is undoubtedly at a low, it’s an innovative force that will take more than an accident (or several) to stop. Investigations into the incident continue, but we’re pretty sure Uber is fidgeting uncomfortably.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you more updates as they come.
