Uber ‘disabled braking system’ in fatal crash

Uber had disabled the emergency braking function of the Volvo XC90 which killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona in March. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says the car was “operating with a self-driving system in computer control mode” when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing a bicycle across the road. According to the NTSB report, Uber said “emergency braking manoeuvres are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the
May 30, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

8336 Uber had disabled the emergency braking function of the Volvo XC90 which killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona in March. A %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external preliminary report NTSB report link false https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HWY18MH010-prelim.pdf false false%> from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says the car was “operating with a self-driving system in computer control mode” when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing a bicycle across the road.

According to the NTSB report, Uber said “emergency braking manoeuvres are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behaviour”. This means that the driver is relied upon to take appropriate action on the road – however, the system “is not designed to alert the operator”.

Investigators found that the car’s self-driving system registered the pedestrian about six seconds before impact, when the vehicle was travelling at 43mph. The system’s software classified the pedestrian “as an unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle with varying expectations of future travel path”. At 1.3 seconds before impact, “the self-driving system determined that an emergency braking manoeuvre was needed to mitigate a collision”.

The NTSB is continuing its investigation to determine the probable cause of the accident, and plans to make safety recommendations to prevent similar incidents. The agency said it was working with Uber, Volvo Cars and the Arizona Department of Transportation “to compile a complete and accurate account of the crash”.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Companies depend on automation, AI and machine learning for cyber security
    February 23, 2018
    To defend against cyber attacks, 39% of organisations are reliant on automation, 34% on machine learning and 32% on artificial intelligence (AI), according to the Cisco 2018 annual report conducted on 3,600 chief information security officers. It found that over half of all attacks resulted in financial damages of more than $500,000 (£697,000), including, but not limited to, lost revenue, clients, opportunities, and out-of-pocket costs. The study revealed that adversaries are using Malware sophistication
    Read More
  • Zenuity gets green light to trial self-driving cars on Swedish highways
    January 30, 2019
    Zenuity, a joint venture between vehicle solution manufacturer Veoneer and Volvo Cars, is to trial self-driving cars on Swedish highways at a maximum speed of 80km/h. Dennis Nobelius, CEO at Zenuity, says the vehicles will collect important data and improve the company’s safety functions to make unsupervised cars a reality. Transportstyrelsen, the Swedish transport agency, has approved the trials which will take place on the E4 between Stockholm and Malmö; Road 40 between Jönköping and Gothenburg; a
    Read More
  • Uber helicopter service set for Manhattan
    June 12, 2019
    Uber is to launch a helicopter service in New York City which is expected to offer flights from Lower Manhattan to Kennedy International Airport in eight minutes. A New York Times report says the average flight on the Uber Copter will cost $200-225 per person and include ground transportation on both ends of the trip. Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate - the ride-hailing firm’s aerial division - says: “Our plan is to eventually roll out Uber Copter to more Uber customers and to other cities, but we want
    Read More
  • RAC Foundation: UK drivers receive 12 million penalties annually
    October 25, 2017
    Up to 12 million driving license holders receive a penalty notice each year – the equivalent of one every 2.5 seconds; meaning as many as a third (30%) of Britain's 40 million drivers now receive a penalty notice annually. The findings come from the Automated Road Traffic Enforcement: Regulation, Governance and Use - for the RAC Foundation by Dr Adam Snow, a lecturer in criminology at Liverpool Hope University. The penalty notices include the Fixed Penalty Notice (a criminal penalty issued
    Read More

Highlighted Content