Police in Tempe, Arizona, released a video showing footage from Uber's self-driving car that hit and killed a person last Sunday. The images show how the accident took place, on a high-flow stretch of road where there are no pedestrian crossings. The footage also shows that on board the car the operator in charge of emergency intervention was not having any problems, even if he was a little distracted.
On Sunday, March 18 at around 10pm, a self-driving Volvo SUV from Uber was driving along a high-speed road in Tempe, a city southeast of Phoenix. On board the car, which was traveling in autonomous mode at around 65 kilometers per hour, there was only the driver in charge of intervening in the event of unexpected behavior by the car. Halfway down a block, in a spot with no crosswalk, a 49-year-old woman started crossing the street pushing her bicycle by hand. Uber's car did not have time to detect the danger and brake, overwhelming it. Rescuers took her to the hospital, where the woman died of serious injuries sustained in the accident.
In the days after the accident, the police explained that the accident could hardly have been avoided, even in the case of a human being driving. In both circumstances the car would not have had the space to brake and stop, avoiding the person in the middle of the road. The video seems to confirm this version: the woman was in a shadow between two street lamps and became visible when it was too late. In the video it becomes evident a couple of seconds before the accident, but now it will be necessary to clarify whether the other sensors in the car, which detect things in front of the car even in the dark, have worked correctly. It should also be clarified whether the driver in the vehicle behaved as requested by Uber, given that he appears distracted and has no eyes on the road at various times prior to the investment.
The video is only part of the large amount of data collected by Uber's car, which can be analyzed to reconstruct the accident and ascertain any responsibility. In addition to the Tempe police, the United States Transportation Safety Agency and Road Safety Agency participate in the investigation. Uber has given its full cooperation and has suspended testing of its self-driving cars in other cities in Arizona and the United States, pending clarification.
