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.”
Vasquez could face charges of vehicular manslaughter, according to the report, which was released late on Thursday in response to a public records request.
It’s amazing to me that people continue to watch video, text or otherwise cause themselves to be distracted while driving a vehicle.
If true she should be jailed for several years. I’m tired of people being so self-centered and it needs to be punished when it results in an accident.
I can’t imagine watching tv was part of her testing brief.
I wonder if she knew Uber had disabled the emergency braking system in the car. If she knew and was that inattentive, it is pretty damning. If she didn’t Uber was seriously negligent.
Doesnt matter. Her job is to be the SAFETY driver so that if the system fails, something bad doesn’t happen. If she was attentive and, say, her brake failed… that’s not on her.
Unclear to me why Uber and its fiduciary executives aren’t being charged with vehicular homicide or even murder.
It speaks to the severity of her dereliction of duty. It would be bad enough if she was in a vehicle with the emergency systems enabled where she was the backup, but if she knew she was the primary emergency system that puts the crime into different territory.
This is precisely why I’m against self-driving cars. In order for it to work, there needs to be more technology *outside* of the car that is working in the same order as the car to keep people safe, i.e. give cars awareness when they’re approaching crosswalks. But just as the driver was being irresponsible by not keeping fully engaged as the safety driver, the pedestrian wasn’t crossing the street within the lines of the crosswalk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to fault the pedestrian here, rather I can’t stop thinking that humans (or at least Americans) behave in such a way that demonstrates they aren’t ever going to completely comply with the “rules.” Speed limits? Nah, those are just suggestions. Light’s changing at the intersection up ahead? Well, I’m in a hurry. I genuinely don’t see how technology can solve the ills caused by mankind’s innate spirit of rebellion, and remember that we haven’t even talked about the human tendency for error. Ergo, self-driving cars freak me out.