A woman was struck and killed on Sunday night by an autonomous car operated by Uber in Tempe, Ariz. It was believed to be the first pedestrian death associated with self-driving technology.
What We Know About the Accident
N. Mill Avenue
Moeur Park
N. Mill Avenue
Marquee Theatre
Body seen in this area
Elaine Herzberg was struck while walking her bike across the street somewhere in this area.
The self-driving Uber was traveling north at about 40 m.p.h.
N. Mill Avenue
N. Mill Avenue
Moeur Park
Body seen in this area
Elaine Herzberg was struck while walking her bike across the street somewhere in this area.
The self-driving Uber was traveling north at about 40 m.p.h.
N. Mill Avenue
N. Mill Avenue
Moeur Park
Body seen in this area
The self-driving Uber was traveling north at about 40 m.p.h.
Elaine Herzberg was struck while walking her bike across the street somewhere in this area.
N. Mill Avenue
N. Mill Avenue
Moeur Park
Body seen in this area
Elaine Herzberg was struck while walking her bike across the street somewhere in this area.
The self-driving Uber was traveling north at about 40 m.p.h.
The car, a Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicle outfitted with a sensor system, was in autonomous mode when it struck Elaine Herzberg around 10 p.m. on Sunday. There was a human safety driver at the wheel, but the car was carrying no passengers.
The vehicle was going about 40 miles an hour on a street with a 45-mile-an-hour speed limit when it struck Ms. Herzberg, 49, who was walking her bicycle across the street, according to the Tempe police.
Authorities on Wednesday released portions of a dashboard camera recording from the vehicle, which showed the exterior and interior of the car moments before the accident. (Warning: the video contains graphic material.)
The video shows that the safety driver, identified by police as Rafael Vasquez, was clearly distracted and looking down from the road.
It also appears that both of the safety driver's hands were not hovering above the steering wheel, which is what most backup drivers are instructed to do because it allows them to take control of the car quickly in the case of an emergency.
Earlier in the week, police officials said the driver was not impaired and had cooperated with authorities. The self-driving car, however, should have detected the woman crossing the road.
Like many self-driving cars, Uber equips its vehicles with lidar sensors -- an acronym for light detection and ranging systems -- to help the car detect the world around it. One of the positive attributes of lidar is that it is supposed to work well at night when it is dark, detecting objects from hundreds of feet away.
The accident was a reminder that self-driving technology is still in the experimental stage, as Silicon Valley giants, major automakers and other companies race to develop vehicles that can drive on their own. Governments, for their part, are still trying to figure out how to regulate the technology, and a patchwork of rules are in place around the country.
Uber’s self-driving program first started in Pittsburgh in September 2016, and extended to Tempe in February 2017. The Arizona city was considered an ideal place to test autonomous vehicles because of its favorable weather and wide roads.
After Sunday’s crash, Uber quickly suspended the program in Arizona, as well as in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.
“The video is disturbing and heartbreaking to watch, and our thoughts continue to be with Elaine’s loved ones,” Matt Kallman, a spokesman for Uber, said Wednesday. “Our cars remain grounded, and we're assisting local, state and federal authorities in any way we can.”
The Tempe police said it was still investigating the crash.
Ms. Herzberg’s death was not the first involving self-driving technology.
In 2016, a man in Florida was killed while at the wheel of a Tesla while using its Autopilot feature, which uses a computer vision-based vehicle detection system that differs from the technology used by Uber. Federal investigators later ruled that the system was not at fault in the crash.
How a Self-Driving Car Works
LIDAR UNIT
CAMERAS
Constantly spinning, it uses laser beams to generate a 360-degree image of the car’s surroundings.
Use parallax from multiple images to find the distance to various objects. Cameras also detect traffic lights and signs, and help recognize moving objects like pedestrians and bicyclists.
RADAR SENSORS
Measure the distance from the car to obstacles.
ADDITIONAL
LIDAR UNITS
MAIN COMPUTER (LOCATED IN TRUNK)
Analyzes data from the sensors, and compares its stored maps to assess current conditions.
LIDAR UNIT
CAMERAS
Constantly spinning, it uses laser beams to generate a 360-degree image of the car’s surroundings.
Use parallax from multiple images to find the distance to various objects. Cameras also detect traffic lights and signs, and help recognize moving objects like pedestrians and bicyclists.
RADAR SENSORS
Measure the distance from the car to obstacles.
MAIN COMPUTER
(LOCATED IN TRUNK)
ADDITIONAL
LIDAR UNITS
Analyzes data from the sensors, and compares its stored maps to assess current conditions.
LIDAR UNIT
CAMERAS
Constantly spinning, it uses laser beams to generate a 360-degree image of the car’s surroundings.
Use parallax from multiple images to find the distance to various objects. Cameras also detect traffic lights and signs, and help recognize moving objects like pedestrians and bicyclists.
RADAR SENSORS
Measure the distance from the car to obstacles.
MAIN COMPUTER
(LOCATED IN TRUNK)
Analyzes data from the sensors, and compares its stored maps to assess current conditions.
ADDITIONAL
LIDAR UNITS
1
2
3
4
5
LIDAR UNIT
1
Constantly spinning, it uses laser beams to generate a 360-degree image of the car’s surroundings.
CAMERAS
2
Use parallax from multiple images to find the distance to various objects. Cameras also detect traffic lights and signs, and help recognize moving objects like pedestrians and bicyclists.
MAIN COMPUTER (LOCATED IN TRUNK)
3
Analyzes data from the sensors, and compares its stored maps to assess current conditions.
RADAR SENSORS
4
Measure the distance from the car to various obstacles.
ADDITIONAL LIDAR UNITS
5
5
There are a few different types of technologies that are used in autonomous driving systems. Uber and Waymo, which was spun off from Google, use lidar and radar technology, along with computer vision, to help guide the vehicle.
A self-driving car’s sensors gather data on nearby objects, like their size and rate of speed. It categorizes the objects — as cyclists, pedestrians or other cars and objects — based on how they are likely to behave.
Red boxes: cyclists
Yellow boxes: pedestrians
Pink boxes:
vehicles
Green “fences”:
locations where
the car may need
to slow down
Red “fences”:
locations where the car
will need to stop
Red boxes: cyclists
Yellow boxes: pedestrians
Pink boxes:
vehicles
Green “fences”:
locations where
the car may need
to slow down
Red “fences”:
locations where the car
will need to stop
Red boxes: cyclists
Yellow boxes:
pedestrians
Pink boxes:
vehicles
Green “fences”:
locations where
the car may need
to slow down
Red “fences”:
locations where the car
will need to stop
Pink boxes:
vehicles
Red boxes:
cyclists
Yellow boxes:
pedestrians
Red “fences”:
locations where the car
will need to stop
Green “fences”:
locations where the car
may need to slow down