Police release video of fatal Uber self-driving car accident

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This screenshot of the dashcam footage from the driverless Uber car accident shows the moments right before impact.

Police in Tempe, Arizona, have released the dashcam footage of the fatal car accident involving a self-driving vehicle on the evening of March 18, 2018.

The footage shows the exterior view of the car at the moment it hit the pedestrian and then the interior view of the backup driver inside the driverless car.

The impact killed Elaine Herzberg, 49, who was walking a bicycle across the street from the center median. She was not in a crosswalk and the self-driving car did not brake.

Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir told the San Francisco Chronicle that the collision would have been difficult to avoid regardless of whether the car was autonomous or human-driven.

“…based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway,” Moir told the Chronicle. She said she suspects that the Uber vehicle would not be at fault in the accident.

However the Associated Press talked to two experts who viewed the footage and said that the car’s sensors should have picked up the pedestrian in time to brake.

The incident is the first fatal accident involving a self-driving car.

Uber is cooperating with police and has grounded their driverless car testing in the U.S. and Canada, including in Pittsburgh and Toronto.

Uber said it has halted the testing of their hundreds of self-driving vehicles throughout the United States and Canada. It’s currently conducting autonomous vehicle tests in Arizona, Pittsburgh, Toronto and other areas.

An Uber blog post from last year said their self-driving cars have logged over 1 million miles and are outfitted with “360 degree cameras, lasers, and radars”.

Watch a video Uber released last year on its driverless car testing:

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