This archive report was first published on 6 November 2019.
On March 18, 2018, a fatal accident occurred in Tempe, Arizona, when an Uber self-driving car struck and killed a 49-year-old woman. The incident has been under investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
According to a preliminary report by the NTSB, the car's software spotted the woman nearly six seconds before the vehicle hit her as she walked across the street at night with her bicycle. However, the system failed to classify her as a pedestrian but instead considered her an object.
When the software determined that a collision was imminent approximately 1.2 seconds before impact, it suppressed any extreme braking or steering actions to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. It did, however, produce an auditory alert to the vehicle operator as it initiated a plan for the vehicle slowdown.
Following the accident, Uber suspended its autonomous driving testing in all locations in the United States but resumed the program several months later. The company has assured the NTSB that new technology in the cars will correctly recognize pedestrians in similar situations and trigger braking more than four seconds before impact.
Between September 2016 and March 2018, 37 crashes involving Uber automatic test vehicles operating in autonomous mode occurred, excluding the Arizona crash.
On November 6, 2019, the NTSB released a statement explaining that the system design did not include a consideration for jaywalking pedestrians.
SEE ALSO: In SA, newly approved TB regimen drastically cuts treatment time
