Tempe, Arizona - Police say evidence shows 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, and the crash that rocked the nascent industry was "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.
Uber's interior camera shows driver Rafaela Vasquez at almost the same moment. File image : Tempe Police Department via AP
The Uber car was in autonomous mode at the time of
the crash, but Uber, like other self-driving car developers,
requires a back-up driver in the car to intervene when the
autonomous system fails or a tricky driving situation occurs. Vasquez looked up just 0.5 seconds before the crash, after
keeping her head down for 5.3 seconds, the Tempe Police report
said. Uber's self-driving Volvo SUV was traveling at about 70km/h.
Uber declined to comment, on the report, although an Uber spokeswoman said in May the company was
undergoing a "top-to-bottom safety review," and had brought in a
former federal transportation official to help improve the
company's safety culture. The company prohibits the use of any
mobile device by safety drivers while the self-driving cars are
on a public road, and drivers are told they can be fired for
violating this rule.
Police said a review of video from inside the car showed
Vasquez was looking down during the trip, and her face "appears
to react and show a smirk or laugh at various points during the
times that she is looking down." The report found that Vasquez
"was distracted and looking down" for close to seven of the
nearly 22 minutes prior to the collision.
Tempe Police detective Michael McCormick asked Hulu for help
in the investigation, writing in a 10 May email to the company
that "this is a very serious case where the charges of vehicle
manslaughter may be charged, so correctly interpreting the
information provided to us is crucial." Hulu turned over the
records on 31 May.
NTSB investigators examine the damamge to the self-driving Uber Volvo after the crash. File image: Tempe Police Department via AP
According to a report in May by the National
Transportation Safety Board, which is also investigating the
crash, Vasquez told federal investigators she had been
monitoring the self-driving interface in the car and that
neither her personal nor business phones were in use until after
the crash. That report showed Uber had disabled the emergency
braking system in the Volvo, and Vasquez began braking less than
a second after hitting Herzberg.
Herzberg, who was homeless, was walking her bicycle across
the street, outside of a crosswalk on a four-lane road, the
night of March 18 when she was struck by the front right side of
the Volvo. The police report faulted Herzberg for "unlawfully crossing
the road at a location other than a marked crosswalk."
In addition to the report, police on Thursday released a number of audio files of 911 calls made by Vasquez, who waited at
the scene for police, and bystanders the night of the crash;
photographs of Herzberg's damaged bicycle and the Uber car; and
videos from police officers' body cameras that capture the
minutes after the crash, including harrowing screams in the
background.
The crash dealt Uber a major setback in its efforts to
develop self-driving cars, and the company shut down its
autonomous car testing program in Arizona after the incident. It
says it plans to begin testing elsewhere during 2018, although
in some cities it will have to first win over increasingly wary
regulators.