Hyperdrive
Uber Victim Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Car
- First pedestrian fatality with autonomous car raises questions
- Uber vehicle struck and killed woman Sunday night in Tempe
Inside the Path Forward for Self-Driving Cars
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Police say a video from the Uber self-driving car that struck and killed a woman on Sunday shows her moving in front of it suddenly, a factor that investigators are likely to focus on as they assess the performance of the technology in the first pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous vehicle.
The Uber had a forward-facing video recorder, which showed the woman was walking a bike at about 10 p.m. and moved into traffic from a dark center median. "It’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode,” Sylvia Moir, the police chief in Tempe, Arizona, told the San Francisco Chronicle.