The broader safety implications of the death of Elaine Hertzberg after being struck by an Uber autonomous vehicle in Tempe is still being litigated. Last week, the back-up driver of the vehicle was charged with negligent homicide.
"The driver behind the wheel of an autonomous Uber car that fatally struck an Arizona woman has been charged with negligent homicide," reports Laurel Wamsley.
Rafaela Vasquez has pleaded not guilty to the crime of killing Elaine Herzberg in March 2018. The charges follow the results of an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, released last year, which "found that the probable cause of the crash was 'the failure of the vehicle operator to monitor the driving environment and the operation of the automated driving system because she was visually distracted throughout the trip by her personal cell phone,'" explains Wamsley.
According to a separate article by Kea Wilson, the indictment "is receiving poor reviews from street safety advocates because of its limited scope."
"Experts fear that by only holding the person behind the wheel accountable — rather than the employer who paid her to drive the car, the automaker who designed the dangerous vehicle, and the road designer who built the dangerous street where the crash occurred — justice won’t really be done," writes Wilson.
Planetizen correspondent Irvin Dawid wrote on the role of Uber and its Volvo autonomous vehicle technology in the fatal crash in March 2018.
FULL STORY: Backup Driver Of Autonomous Uber SUV Charged With Negligent Homicide In Arizona
Tempe Police Chief: Uber AV vs. Pedestrian Crash May Have Been Unavoidable
After viewing the videos taken by two cameras equipped in the Uber autonomous vehicle that fatally struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg on Sunday, the chief concluded the crash was difficult to avoid. Also, lessons on the crash from David Leonhardt.
Uber's Self-Driving Cars Couldn’t Detect People Outside of Crosswalks
The National Transportation Safety Board has released documents related to the Tempe, Arizona, crash that killed a person, highlighting what went wrong with the driverless technology.
Did Uber Just Get Away With Manslaughter?
Remember Elaine Herzberg, the 49-year-old woman who became the first pedestrian fatality due to an autonomous vehicle when she was hit last March by an Uber with a safety driver in Tempe, Ariz.? Prosecutors found no criminal liability.
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