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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:26PM (2 children)
There is already good equipment available for non-destructive testing off the highway, for example, here are some little electric robot "sleds" that are not damaged when driven over. They can roam all over a proving ground coordinated externally and can hold either a person manikin or even a "bicycle" manikin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7-SS1LxjPw [youtube.com] Same company also sells larger platforms that carry dummy cars, with correct light and radar reflectivity--they come apart when hit and snap back together. Originally developed for ADAS testing (advanced driver assist system), they work equally well for AV testing.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:33AM (1 child)
That's all nice, but the problem with those is that if you prearrange tests, then you test only what you thought of. At some point youhave to go out and test it in the real world, as only that will tell you how well the car copes about unexpected situations.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @02:07PM
Of course. But a dummy/person jaywalking obliviously (with or without pushing a bicycle) across a wide road would be one of the obvious test cases for proving ground debugging. Early recognition by the AV AND a speed and/or path change to miss the pedestrian trajectory would be one reasonable result.
I have no idea what kinds of development testing Uber has done off the public roads, but it appears they didn't do this one.