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Former Uber Backup Driver: 'We Saw This Coming'

Before the fatal crash in Tempe, Uber’s self-driving test program had safety weaknesses, ex-employees say. Some weren’t avoidable, technologists believe, but some might have been.
A screenshot from a dashcam video taken by an autonomous Uber vehicle on March 18 in Tempe, AZ. The pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg, was killed when the car struck her. This image has been edited for clarity.
A screenshot from a dashcam video taken by an autonomous Uber vehicle on March 18 in Tempe, AZ. The pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg, was killed when the car struck her. This image has been edited for clarity.Tempe Police Department/CityLab
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The first time Ryan Kelley lifted his hands off the wheel of a self-driving Uber, he felt like he’d landed a role in a dress rehearsal for the future.

This was in February of 2017 in Pittsburgh, where Uber had been testing SUVs equipped with proprietary self-driving technology on public streets for about five months. Some of the vehicles picked up passengers through Uber’s regular ride-hailing app—the first time self-driving cars had been so accessible in a U.S. market.