Arizona Police have released footage of the fatal collision between one of Uber's self-driving cars and a pedestrian on the street.
After one of Uber's self-driving cars struck and killed Elaine Herzberg, a 49-year-old resident of Tempe, Arizona, the company immediately halted its self-driving car program until the matter could be investigated. However, the video has begun to raise questions on the over all safety of self-driving car technology.
While the dashcam video doesn't go so far as to actually show the impact of the crash, it does show the exterior and the interior of the car in the moments prior to the accident. In the video, Herzberg doesn't appear in front of the car until just before the car collides with her. More damning, however, is the footage of the driver, identified by police as 44-year-old Rafaela Vasquez, who appears to be only partially paying attention to the road, while occasionally looking down and away from the windshield.
Uber's self-driving car technologies rely on a variety of radar sensors to detect obstacles, and the driver is there in case of emergency. It's unclear what exactly happened to cause this accident, but the video makes clear that neither failsafe was functioning properly in this instance.
This has raised questions as to whether or not self-driving car technology is currently safe for the road, who is ultimately responsible for this tragedy, and how this kind of accident can be prevented in the future. Regardless, this could be a major turning point for the future of self-driving car technology.
You can watch the released footage below.
