Self-driving Uber vehicle strikes, kills 49-year-old woman in Tempe

In the nation's first pedestrian death involving an autonomous vehicle, a 49-year-old woman was hit and killed by a self-driving Volvo operated by Uber while crossing a street in Tempe on Sunday night.

Forty-nine-year old Elaine Herzberg was walking a bike across Mill Avenue outside the crosswalk near the Marquee Theatre at about 10 p.m. when she was hit, police said.

Sgt. Ronald Elcock, a Tempe police spokesman, said the car was in autonomous mode with a driver behind the wheel when it hit the pedestrian.

Herzberg, who was homeless, died at a hospital.

Elcock said impairment did not initially appear to be a factor of either the Uber operator or Herzberg. He also said that it was not apparent that the Uber vehicle attempted to slow down as it approached Herzberg.





Uber's vehicle operators are on hand to take over if the cars can't negotiate a traffic situation and to drive manually when they are in areas where the cars are not programmed to drive themselves.

Uber's self-driving vehicles use cameras and lidar to detect obstacles and also have cameras aimed at the vehicle occupants. Lidar is similar to radar but uses light instead of radio waves to detect objects.

Elcock said he had reviewed video captured by the vehicle but declined to further describe the accident.

"It will definitely assist in the investigation, without a doubt," he said, adding that another press conference was being planned for Tuesday.

Uber and Tempe police initially provided different names for the vehicle operator.

Uber identified the driver as Rafaela Vasquez, 44. The company later clarified that the name provided by police is a name used on Vasquez's legal documents.

Court records show that Vasquez, under a different first name, has a criminal record including prison time for an attempted armed robbery conviction.

Herzberg was crossing Mill Avenue from west to east, according to Elcock.

A large median at the site of the crash has signs warning people not to cross mid-block and to instead use the crosswalk to the north at Curry. But the median also has a brick pathway that cuts through the desert landscaping that accommodates people who do cross at that site.

At a homeless camp off Mill Avenue and Lake View Drive near the crash, people said Monday that Herzberg was well liked.

They said that she had some family problems but they declined to give details. At least one person said that someone had picked up Herzberg’s personal belongings.

Court records show that Herzberg had been convicted on drug possession charges. In an April 2015 letter written by her husband to a judge, he said that Herzberg had been using drugs to “self medicate to deal with her depression” during the past 13 years.

Uber suspends self-driving program

Uber said that its self-driving car operations have been "paused" here as well as San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The company did not dispute the police report of the vehicle operating in autonomous mode.

Uber had been carrying customers in the self-driving cars in limited parts of Tempe and Scottsdale.

"Our hearts go out to the victim’s family," Uber said. "We’re fully cooperating with local authorities as they investigate this incident."

The company had planned to show its autonomous operations to media later this week and cancelled that event in the wake of the fatality.

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The Phoenix area is among several sites where Uber, Waymo and other companies are testing autonomous vehicles.

Nearly every accident involving autonomous cars so far has been the fault of other drivers. Sunday's fatality was the first fatality.

In 2016, a man driving a partially autonomous Tesla car was killed in Florida when he hit a truck. That vehicle was not intended to operate without an attentive driver, in contrast with the Uber and Waymo vehicles that are striving to offer vehicles that do not need human drivers.

Consumers are wary of the safety of robot cars, but the fatality probably won't hold back development of the technology, some experts said.

"The safety will have to be proven out to give consumers confidence," said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Cox Automotive's Autotrader in Detroit. "This incident may cause consumers pause, but the work on self-driving cars will continue."

How autonomous cars operate

Uber and Waymo have drivers in most of their test cars in the Phoenix area, but Waymo has even taken operators out of the driver seat for some tests.

The companies brought their self-driving cars here after Gov. Doug Ducey issued a 2015 executive order that permitted the tests without any special licensing or registration.

Ducey recently updated his executive order to clarify that fully autonomous vehicle operators must submit a statement to the Department of Transportation declaring:

The vehicle complies with federal law

That it will "achieve a minimal risk condition" if the vehicle has a malfunction

The vehicle is capable of complying with all laws and regulations

That the person testing or operating the autonomous vehicle may be issued a citation or other penalty if laws are broken

The autonomous vehicle is properly licensed, registered and insured

Because Waymo already has vehicles on the road without drivers, it was given 60 days to comply with the order. Uber would need to submit the statement before allowing its cars to begin operating without drivers.

Governor responds to incident

Ducey's office issued a statement following the fatal accident.

"We are aware of the accident this morning and our hearts go out to the victim involved," Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said. "Public safety is our top priority, and the governor's latest executive order provides enhanced enforcement measures and clarity on responsibility in these accidents."

Jim McPherson is a California attorney and autonomous car expert who has criticized the industry for not focusing enough on safety. He said the companies testing on public roads should reassess in the wake of the accident that killed Herzberg, who police said may have been homeless.

"Whoever this bicyclist was, she probably didn't not know there was an autonomous vehicle on the road," he said. "She probably did not consent to testing being done. It was high risk to her, but the governor of her state decided autonomy needed to be on the roads right away."

The fatality comes amid a rash of pedestrian fatalities in Arizona, which Alberto Gutier, director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety in Arizona, recently called a crisis.

Reporter Gabrielle Olivera contributed to this article.

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