The Uber self-drive cars are supposed to detect people and cyclists. But in this case that didn't happen. The fatality has reignited the debate around the safety of self-drive cars.
Police in the US have released a video of a crash involving an Uber self-driving car and a woman killed while wheeling a bike.
The car was in self-drive mode when the crash occurred. One of the worrying features of the incident was that the car did not detect and respond to the woman and bicycle in the road in front of it.
When safety concerns have been raised around self-driving vehicles in the past, those promoting the technology have insisted it can detect both pedestrians and cyclists.
And, it has been consistently claimed, that detection ability results in collisions being avoided.
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We have published the clip below. And while it may be upsetting for some readers it does not show the moment of impact or the aftermath.
Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is actively investigating
the details of this incident that occurred on March 18th. We will provide updated information regarding the investigation once it is available. pic.twitter.com/2dVP72TziQ— Tempe Police (@TempePolice) March 21, 2018
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The woman killed last Sunday in this video released by the police was walking with her bike.
However, if the car detected the victim or her bike, it did not react in any way.
The victim had stepped into the road and while it was dark many commentators in the US have pointed out the woman and her bike should have been detected by the vehicle long before it reached her in the road.
The car was not travelling fast, conditions were ideal and there were no other vehicles close by.
It means a pedestrian and bicycle simply escaped the car’s detection systems.
This was despite the fact both should have been picked up by one of self-drive technology’s most basic functions; detecting activity in the road ahead.
Commentators have also pointed out while it was dark at the time, the street would not have been as dark as the camera made it seem.
The incident occurred in Arizona last Sunday. And it is the first reported case of a self-driving vehicle – which are still in the testing phase – killing a pedestrian in the US.
The 49-year-old woman killed wheeling her bike across the road last Sunday survived the initial impact but died in hospital later.
There was an operator in the vehicle, a 2017 Volvo SUV, at the time. The car was travelling at about 40 miles per hour.
Yet it did not react in any way to prevent or minimise the collision despite the presence of both the pedestrian and her bike in the car’s path.
Tempe police force’s Sgt Ronald Elcock confirmed the vehicle made not corrective action.
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