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posted by martyb on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the unfortunate dept.

According to this article on MSN:

Police in Tempe, Arizona said evidence showed the "safety" driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber was distracted and streaming a television show on her phone right up until about the time of a fatal accident in March, deeming the crash that rocked the nascent industry "entirely avoidable."

A 318-page report from the Tempe Police Department, released late on Thursday in response to a public records request, said the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, repeatedly looked down and not at the road, glancing up just a half second before the car hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was crossing the street at night.

According to the report, Vasquez could face charges of vehicle manslaughter. Police said that, based on testing, the crash was "deemed entirely avoidable" if Vasquez had been paying attention.

Police obtained records from Hulu, an online service for streaming television shows and movies, which showed Vasquez's account was playing the television talent show "The Voice" the night of the crash for about 42 minutes, ending at 9:59 p.m., which "coincides with the approximate time of the collision," the report says.

It is not clear if Vasquez will be charged, and police submitted their findings to county prosecutors, who will make the determination.


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:28PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:28PM (#697352)

    Airline pilots are trained for hundreds of hours to be able to take over from the automatic systems and they typically have minutes to do so when they have to.

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  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:20AM

    by tftp (806) on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:20AM (#697402) Homepage

    Here is a highly relevant video:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KK5KTQGuXSQ [youtube.com]

    Watch from the beginning, the event at 00:50.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:28AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:28AM (#697404)

    Yes, they have minutes. Automobile drivers have SECONDS.
    MASSIVE difference.

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:49AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:49AM (#697494) Journal

      Have you watched the video linked by the sibling post? That definitely was not minutes of reaction time.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.