A Self-Driving Uber Killed a Woman. Whose Fault Is It?

TNR ^ | 03/21/2018 | Matt Ford

[SeekAndFind]

When a driverless car kills someone, who’s to blame?

That’s no longer a hypothetical question. A self-driving car operated by Uber struck and killed a woman on a street in Tempe, Arizona, on Sunday night, likely marking a grim milestone for the nascent technology: the first pedestrian killed by such a car on public roads.

Police say the 49-year-old woman was walking a bike across the street, outside the crosswalk, at around 10 p.m. The Uber was traveling at 40 miles per hour in autonomous mode, with an operator in the driver’s seat, when she was hit. Police have not yet determined who was at fault. (The car apparently didn’t slow down, and the operator didn’t appear impaired.) Nonetheless, Uber immediately suspended its self-driving tests in Arizona and nationwide, as many in the tech industry reacted with alarm.

There’s an ongoing debate about legal liability when it comes to collisions in which an autonomous vehicle harms someone else through no fault of that person. Would the blame lie with the self-driving car’s owner, manufacturer, a combination of the two, or someone else? In their quest to become the Mecca of self-driving cars, Arizona regulators have largely left those questions unanswered, The New York Times reported last year:

[Logical me]

Get these damn things off the road.

[Moonman62]

Why weren’t the brakes applied before, during, or after impact by the car’s control system?

...

How do you know they weren’t?

[XEHRpa]

Thank for the cited article. I should have remembered, when lawyers are involved, no one is safe.

[Leep]

Everything is so different in the future.
No one knows what sex they are. Cars are driving around by themselves.
And CNN is a department within the government.
And eggs cost 18 quatloos a dozen!

[Leep]

Which will come first self driving cars or the end times
?
Check out how long electric cars have been around.

Also,I hooked up a 1950’s phone to my land line and the sound quality,and clearity, was amazing.
Put “modern” phones to shame

[SeekAndFind]

RE: It’s the woman’s fault. Next question.

You ask for a next question so here it is — Can you elaborate as to why?

[Boiler Plate]

Uber

[Responsibility2nd]

You ask for a next question so here it is — Can you elaborate as to why?

______________________________________

The cops have already determined it was her fault based on the videos the autonomous car took before, during and after the woman walked her bike out in front of a moving car.

[discostu]

Somehow I don’t think the job of “sit behind the wheel and don’t do anything unless the car is about to do something really bad” is a high paying gig drawing top shelf candidates.

[precisionshootist]

It’s Uber’s fault. They own the car. What if it was a 10 year old kid chasing a ball? The women was walking the bike and a human at the wheel would have almost certainly been able to avoid hitting her.

[LeoTDB69]

Somehow I don’t think the job of “sit behind the wheel and don’t do anything unless the car is about to do something really bad” is a high paying gig drawing top shelf candidates.

When ya word the job description that way I get it. Still don't like to think the 'do-nothing' driver of the car I get in might be a murderer.

[DoughtyOne]

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[Go Gordon]

Depending on what happened, it might be all her fault.

In most states I've been to, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way.

[Go Gordon]

Our Toyota has a lane departure assist feature, but it works pretty poorly

What does the car do when you veer out of the lane for defensive driving purposes?

[Redwood71]

“It will all come out.”

I doubt it. The media will milk anything until it can be explained or creates a smear on their voting base. I believe a guy named Dale Carnegie wrote a book once call “how to make friends and influence people.” The media wrote the book on how to sell papers and keep the voting base and their selected politicians protected.

rwood

[Go Gordon]

In case anyone was wondering, THIS is one of the real hurdles in the widespread adoption of self-driving cars. The technology is the easy part.

The women was killed WALKING HER BIKE! Doesn't sound like the technology is quite there yet, unless society is willing to be run over from time to time by a driverless car.

[BenLurkin]

Of course. All that’s necessary is for them to give the driver enough time to see and react.

[blueplum]

well, let’s see.

The car had a dummy driver. Dummy in that she was either texting or watching something, looking down. She looked up as she hit the ped.

Female driver is a felon - attempted armed robbery. Thanks uber! Great personnel choice!! Woman was walking her bike across the road and was almost to the curb. The accident was avoidable if the car had moved over one lane.

Pedestrians almost always have the right of way in a contest between 3,000lb auto and 140lb human, for obvious reasons.

[Go Gordon]

The driver never saw her. His first indication of the accident was the sound of the impact.

So, in other words, he wasn't paying attention. There is no way to hit a pedestrian with the front of your car and not see it happen, unless you weren't paying attention.

[Reno89519]

The police said there was no sign of slowing or breaking.