Author: Mihir Zaveri / Source: New York Times
Tempe Police Department, via Associated Press
Arizona prosecutors said Tuesday that they had not found evidence to charge Uber with a crime in connection with an accident in which one of its autonomous cars hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe a year ago.
On March 18, 2018, a Volvo sport utility vehicle, one of several self-driving vehicles that Uber was testing, was traveling about 40 miles per hour when it hit Elaine Herzberg, 49, as she was walking her bicycle across the street at night, the authorities said.
While the car was in autonomous mode, a safety driver was sitting in the driver’s seat.
The Yavapai County Attorney’s Office, which reviewed the case, said in a letter dated Monday that there was “no basis for criminal liability for the Uber corporation.”
But it added that investigators should look into what the safety driver “would or should have seen that night given the vehicle’s speed, lighting conditions, and other relevant factors.”
The Yavapai County Attorney’s Office said an investigation into the case was continuing.
In June, the Tempe Police Department released a report that said the safety driver was streaming the television show “The Voice” on her phone in the minutes leading up to the crash, The Arizona Republic reported.
Uber declined to comment Tuesday, as did the Tempe police. The Yavapai County Attorney’s Office did not answer further questions about how it reached its decision.
The March 2018 crash is believed to be the first pedestrian death resulting from self-driving technology, and many wondered how prosecutors would approach a criminal investigation.
The crash raised questions about the safety of the technology as well as the comprehensiveness of the rules governing it. Few…
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