Uber's self-driving car that hit and killed a woman in Arizona, USA in March 2018, had software problems that prevented it from seeing the woman crossing the street in advance. This was established by the investigations of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an American federal agency that deals with civil transport safety that found a flaw in the system used by the car to identify pedestrians: in practice, says the agency, the car system was unable to recognize a pedestrian outside the pedestrian crossing.
The woman invested was called Elain Herzberg: his death was the first caused by a car that drives itself and raised doubts and criticisms against Uber and other companies that are developing this technology. The car that caused the accident was a Volvo XC90: it was going at 40 mph when Herzberg started crossing the road at a point with no crosswalk, carrying his bicycle by hand. Subsequent investigations revealed that the man in the car, in charge of driving in the event of unforeseen events, was distracted at the time of the accident.
Last March, the prosecutor responsible for the investigation ruled that Uber cannot be considered criminally liable for the woman's death, while the driver could be held responsible. On November 19, the federal agency will meet again to investigate the reasons for the accident in more detail.
