Uber has put the brakes on its experimental autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto following a deadly crash in Tempe, Arizona.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has suspended Uber’s ability to test its self-driving cars on the state’s roads following last week’s crash in which a pedestrian died.
In a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Ducey said he found the video of the incident “disturbing and alarming,” adding that as governor, his top priority is public safety. He said public safety should also be the top priority for those operating autonomous-car technology, but said the fatal crash was “an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation.” He finished by saying that he had instructed the Arizona Department of Transportation to suspend Uber’s self-driving tests in the state.
Uber had already put the brakes on its experimental autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto for an unspecified duration of time following the deadly collision on March 18 between one of its prototypes and a woman in Tempe, Arizona.
Video footage taken by the car’s onboard camera and released by the Tempe police department raises more questions than it answers. Meanwhile, the company that made the sensors fitted to the prototype said it’s “baffled” by the crash, and insiders revealed Uber’s self-driving car program wasn’t performing as expected even before the incident first made headlines.
The incident likely marks the first pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous vehicle. The city’s police chief told the San Francisco Chronicle the preliminary investigation suggests Uber isn’t to blame in the crash, though the details gradually trickling out of the investigation suggest it’s not fault-free, either.
What happened?
49-year old Elaine Herzberg, who was struck while pushing her bike and later died from her injuries, was walking outside of the crosswalk, according to a Tempe police department statement. The car was operating in self-driving mode, the police said, but a vehicle operator was behind the wheel at the time. It was traveling at 40 mph in a 45 mph zone when it hit Herzberg and it made no attempt to brake or swerve. The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it planned to open an investigation of the incident, noting “more to come.”
The footage highlights several important details. First, it shows Herzberg was already well into the roadway when the prototype hit her. This contradicts earlier reports claiming she darted across the road at the last minute. It consequently also raises the question of why the armada of sensors — including some that see at night — didn’t recognize a pedestrian and a bicycle on a dark but otherwise clear street.
Second, the video confirms the prototype’s operator took her eyes off the road for several seconds at a time in the moments leading up to the crash. We don’t know if that’s a violation of Uber’s operator guidelines. We reached out to the company for clarification but a spokesperson declined to comment.
The video represents the most important piece of information in the investigation. “It’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway,” Sylvia Moir, Tempe’s police chief, concluded. But while Uber’s prototype might not be at fault, the operator behind the wheel could ultimately face charges.
Who’s to blame?
“I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident,” Moir said. “I won’t rule out the potential to file charges against the (backup driver) in the Uber vehicle,” she added. Velodyne, the San Jose-based company that made some of the sensors fitted to the Uber prototype, paints a different picture. The company told the BBC it’s “baffled” by the accident and it’s still trying to understand how it happened. It claims the Lidar it sold Uber should have spotted Herzberg even in pitch black conditions.
“Our Lidar can see perfectly well in the dark, as well as it sees in daylight, producing millions of points of information. However, it is up to the rest of the system to interpret and use the data to make decisions. We do not know how the Uber system of decision-making works,” Marta Hall, Velodyne Lidar’s president Marta Hall explained. “We do not believe the accident was due to Lidar,” she added. Uber chose not to issue a reply while the investigation is still on-going.
Insiders suggest Uber’s self-driving car program began struggling well before the crash. Speaking to The New York Times, they added the company struggled to meet its goal of one human intervention every 13 miles. To add context, Waymo averages one human intervention every 5,600 miles. To complicate the matter, Uber recently asked its self-driving operators to test cars on public roads on their own instead of pairing up in teams. Some employees expressed safety concerns, notably due to the difficulty of staying alert during the long hours spent behind the wheel.
The same insiders said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi nearly shut down the self-driving car program when he arrived at the company in August 2017. He ultimately saved it because it’s important for the company’s long-term prospects. He was due to visit the program in Arizona this spring, and employees hoped to give him a trouble-free ride in a prototype, but he canceled the trip due to scheduling programs unrelated to the accident.
What has the response been?
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident,” an Uber spokesperson told Digital Trends. The company described the pause in its autonomous vehicle program as “a standard move.” As of writing, testing hasn’t resumed.
Khosrowshahi tweeted his condolences about the sad news, noting that “we’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”
Anthony Foxx, who served as U. S. Secretary of Transportation under President Barack Obama, urged a greater emphasis on self-driving car safety in his own statement:
“There is still so much to know about the Tempe driverless car accident resulting in a loss of life. That said, this is a wake up call to the entire AV industry and government to put a high priority on safety.”
Velodyne’s Hall added “we are very sad, sorry, and worried for the future of a project which is intended to save lives.
