Rafaela Vasquez was watching television on her smartphone in March 2018 when the Uber self-driving vehicle fatally struck Elaine Herzberg, 49, who was crossing a road in Tempe, Arizona, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.
The Uber-employed safety driver behind the wheel of the car was meant to monitor the car’s performance and intervene if the autonomous driving software failed, as previously reported by CNN.
But the National Transportation Safety Board’s 2019 investigation found that Vasquez was looking away from the road for over a third of the trip.
The board concluded that the crash was “avoidable” if the safety driver had been alert and also found that an inadequate safety culture at Uber contributed to the crash.
The company’s self-driving software wasn’t designed to expect that pedestrians outside crosswalks may be crossing the street, according to the investigation.
Persons:
Rafaela Vasquez, Elaine Herzberg, Vasquez, Uber, Rachel Mitchell, “, ” Mitchell, Motional, Albert Jaynes Morrison
Organizations:
CNN, National Transportation Safety Board, Transportation Safety
Locations:
Tempe , Arizona, Superior, Maricopa, Maricopa County