Uber autonomous car ‘driver’ pleads guilty to fatal crash in the US – reports

The human who was behind the wheel of the first autonomous car to kill a pedestrian has avoided jail time – while ride-sharing giant Uber has continued to dodge criminal responsibility for the fatal incident.

Image credit: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

The ‘driver’ of an autonomous car – operated by ride-sharing giant Uber – which killed a pedestrian has reportedly been sentenced to three years of supervised probation, more than five years after the fatal incident occurred.

In March 2018, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was fatally struck by an Uber autonomous test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona – becoming the first pedestrian to be killed by a ‘self-driving’ car globally.

In 2019, an National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found the autonomous car’s human ‘safety back-up driver’, Rafaela Vasquez, was not looking at the road as she was legally required to throughout the journey – instead alleging she was watching a TV show on her mobile phone.

While Ms Vasquez was charged with negligent homicide in 2020, technology publication Wired reports she recently pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of endangerment, resulting in a Maricopa County court handing down the three-year probation sentence this week.

The Uber autonomous car which fatally struck Ms Herzberg was later used in an investigation by the NTSB

The publication reports Ms Vasquez could have faced four to eight years in jail had she been charged with negligent homicide, prompting her guilty plea to the lesser charge.

According to news agency Reuters, the NTSB investigation found Uber made a “series of development decisions that contributed to the crash’s cause” – which included the modified autonomous Volvo XC90’s software not identifying Ms Herzberd as a pedestrian, or recognising Ms Vasquez did not have the ability to react to an emergency situation.

However, Uber was not held criminally responsible for the fatal incident and sold its autonomous driving technology division – Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) – to start-up Aurora for $US4 billion ($AU6bn) in December 2020.

Wired reports there had been several Uber employees who complained about the company’s disregard for safety and complacency while developing and testing its autonomous driving systems, though these have not been officially investigated.

Kevin George Aziz Riad is the first reported driver of a semi-autonomous car to be charged for their role in a fatal crash

The sentencing of Ms Vasquez comes less than a month after the driver of a Tesla which killed two motorists after running a red light – while being operated in its so-called ‘Autopilot’ mode – was sentenced to house arrest and community service but has avoided jail time.

The landmark legal case demonstrated drivers of semi-autonomous cars are still responsible for their vehicles even when in semi-autonomous driving modes that utilise systems such as radar cruise control and lane-keeping assistance.

Kevin George Aziz Riad became the first reported driver of a semi-autonomous car to be charged for their role in a fatal crash after his Tesla Model S sedan – operating in its ‘Autopilot’ semi-autonomous mode – it exited a freeway and ran a red light in south-east Los Angeles. 

The Tesla crashed into a stationary Honda Civic at 119km/h, killing the two occupants of the Honda – Gilberto Lopez and Maria Guadalupe Nieves-Lopez – while Mr Riad and his passenger were hospitalised with non-life threatening injuries.

Mr Riad pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter – allowing him to avoid an admission of guilt but accept the conviction – and was sentenced to two years of probation, 31 days of work service, 100 hours of community service, 90 days of house arrest, and a “hospital and morgue program”.

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