Rafaela Vasquez, the safety driver of an Uber robotaxi prototype that was involved in a fatal accident in Tempe, Arizona in 2018, recently pleaded guilty to endangerment. The judge accepted her plea and sentenced her to three years of supervised probation, according to a report by Fox 10.
The decision to not file more serious criminal charges was based on the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which concluded that the primary cause of the crash was Vasquez’s failure to monitor the road. Vasquez was operating a Volvo XC90 vehicle that had been equipped with Uber’s self-driving system when it struck and killed Elaine Herzberg, a pedestrian who was crossing the road outside of a crosswalk while pushing a bicycle. Despite being rushed to the hospital, Herzberg succumbed to her injuries.
During the subsequent police investigation, it was discovered that Vasquez had been streaming the TV show “The Voice” on her phone for approximately 42 minutes, with the stream ending one minute after the crash. Video footage also captured moments where Vasquez was looking down before the accident occurred.
In Vasquez’s defense, her attorneys argued that she had been using a messaging system on her work phone, which was resting on her knee, while her personal phone, which was streaming “The Voice,” was on the front passenger seat.
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The NTSB conducted a preliminary report that revealed Uber’s self-driving system had detected Herzberg 5.6 seconds before impact using lidar and radar technology. At 1.3 seconds until impact, the system determined that evasive action was necessary. Vasquez took control of the steering wheel one second before impact, but she failed to apply the brakes until after the collision.
At the time, Uber suggested that its self-driving system might have been calibrated in a way that classified the pedestrian as a “false positive,” meaning the system did not recognize the need for action to avoid the incident.
Notably, Volvo was not implicated in any of the investigations because Uber had disabled the XC90’s factory-installed automatic emergency braking software.
Following the incident, Uber decided to discontinue its efforts to develop its own self-driving system. In 2020, Uber sold its division responsible for developing the technology, Uber Advanced Technology Group, to Aurora, a rival self-driving technology company. As a result, Uber plans to rely on self-driving systems from other companies for its future robotaxi fleet. In 2022, Uber disclosed that it had added a robotaxi from Motional, a self-driving technology company backed by Hyundai, to its fleet in Las Vegas.
This high-profile case not only brings attention to the safety and legal issues surrounding autonomous vehicles but also raises questions about the role of human safety drivers in the testing and deployment of self-driving technology. The incident underscores the need for strict regulations and guidelines governing the use of autonomous vehicles on public roads and the responsibility of safety drivers behind the wheel.
While self-driving technology holds the potential to revolutionize transportation by reducing accidents and increasing efficiency, incidents like this emphasize the importance of thorough safety protocols and oversight to ensure public trust and reduce the risk of accidents involving autonomous vehicles.
