Uber driver streaming Hulu before fatal self-driving crash in Tempe,AZ...
Uber car's 'safety' driver streamed TV show before fatal
crash: police
Heather Somerville, David Shepardson
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The safety driver
behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber car in Tempe, Arizona, was streaming a
television show on her phone until about the time of a fatal crash, according
to a police report that deemed the March 18 incident “entirely avoidable.”
A report by the Tempe Police Department said the driver,
Rafaela Vasquez, repeatedly looked down and not at the road, glancing up a half
second before the car hit Elaine Herzberg, 49, who was crossing the street at
night.
The report said police concluded the crash, which has
dealt Uber Technologies Inc a major setback in its efforts to develop
self-driving cars, would have been “entirely avoidable” if Vasquez had been
paying attention.
Vasquez could face charges of vehicular manslaughter,
according to the report, which was released late on Thursday in response to a
public records request.
She could not immediately be reached for comment and
Reuters could not locate her attorney.
Police obtained records from Hulu, an online service for
streaming TV shows and movies, which showed Vasquez’s account was playing the
TV talent show “The Voice” for about 42 minutes on the night of the crash,
ending at 9:59 p.m., which “coincides with the approximate time of the
collision,” the report said.
Police submitted their findings to local prosecutors, who
will make a determination on whether to file criminal charges. The Maricopa
County Attorney’s Office referred the case to the Yavapai County Attorney’s
Office because of a conflict.
A spokeswoman for the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office
said on Friday that “the matter is still pending review. We do not have a
projected timeline for a decision.”
The Uber car was in autonomous mode at the time of the
crash, but the company, like other self-driving car developers, requires a
back-up driver inside to intervene when the autonomous system fails or a tricky
driving situation occurs.
Vasquez looked up just 0.5 seconds before the crash,
after keeping her head down for 5.3 seconds, the Tempe police report said.
Uber’s self-driving Volvo SUV was traveling at just under 44 miles (71 km) per
hour.
“We continue to cooperate fully with ongoing
investigations while conducting our own internal safety review,” an Uber
spokeswoman said. “We have a strict policy prohibiting mobile device usage for
anyone operating our self-driving vehicles. We plan to share more on the
changes we’ll make to our program soon.”
Last month, the Uber spokeswoman said the company was
undergoing a “top-to-bottom safety review,” and had brought on a former U.S.
federal transportation official to help improve its safety culture.
‘VERY SERIOUS CASE’
Police said a review of video from inside the Volvo
showed Vasquez was looking down during the trip, and her face “appears to react
and show a smirk or laugh at various points during the times that she is
looking down.” The report found that Vasquez “was distracted and looking down”
for close to seven of the nearly 22 minutes prior to the collision.
Tempe Police Detective Michael McCormick asked Hulu for
help in the investigation, writing in a May 10 email to the company that “this
is a very serious case where the charges of vehicle manslaughter may be
charged, so correctly interpreting the information provided to us is crucial.”
Hulu turned over the records on May 31.
According to a report last month by the National
Transportation Safety Board, which is also investigating the crash, Vasquez
told federal investigators she had been monitoring the self-driving interface
in the car and that neither her personal nor business phones were in use until
after the crash. That report showed Uber had disabled the emergency braking
system in the Volvo, and Vasquez began braking less than a second after hitting
Herzberg.
Herzberg, who was homeless, was walking her bicycle
across the street, outside of a crosswalk on a four-lane road, when she was
struck by the front right side of the Volvo.
The police report faulted Herzberg for “unlawfully
crossing the road at a location other than a marked crosswalk.”
In addition to the report, police released a slew of
audio files of 911 calls made by Vasquez, who waited at the scene for police,
and bystanders; photographs of Herzberg’s damaged bicycle and the Uber car; and
videos from police officers’ body cameras that capture the minutes after the
crash, including harrowing screams in the background.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) investigators examine a self-driving Uber vehicle involved in a fatal
accident in Tempe, Arizona, U.S., March 20, 2018. A women was struck and killed
by the vehicle on March 18, 2018. National Transportation Safety Board/Handout
via REUTERS/File Photo
Uber shuttered its autonomous car testing program in
Arizona after the incident, and says it plans to begin testing elsewhere this
summer, although in some cities it will have to first win over increasingly
wary regulators.
Reporting by Heather Somervi
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