The Uber driver of the self-driving car that caused a fatal accident in March 2018 was officially charged with culpable death on Tuesday. The woman would not have been paying close enough attention because she was checking her phone.
The victim, a 49-year-old woman, died after the self-driving Uber car shoveled her in Arizona. As far as is known, it was the first death from a self-driving car. The company then temporarily stopped testing the vehicles.
The suspect was in the car at the time of the accident. According to local police, the woman was distracted because she was on her phone to the television show The Voice was watching.
The accident could have been completely avoided if the woman had paid attention, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated in a November 2019 research to the incident.
However, Uber has made a number of decisions in the development of the self-driving car that contributed to the collision, the NTSB concluded. For example, the software in the vehicle, the Volvo XC90, would not have identified the victim as a pedestrian.
The company itself was released from criminal charges by the state of Arizona in March 2019.
– .
