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Uber Settles With Family of Woman Killed By Self-Driving Car, Avoids Lawsuit (arstechnica.com)
It appears that Uber won't go to court to settle a lawsuit after one of its self-driving cars killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona earlier this month. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares a report from Ars Technica: Uber has reached a settlement with the family of the woman killed by an Uber self-driving car. Uber reached the settlement with the daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, who died at age 49 after being hit by the Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. The settlement presumably includes a cash payment, but no details were provided by either Uber or the family's attorney. "The matter has been resolved," said Christina Perez Hesano, an attorney for Herzberg's family, according to reports by Reuters and NPR.
needs to go to criminal court
speaking from experience as someone who was injured by a faulty amusement park ride, there are a few things that nobody talks about during these events. namely:
reaching out: companies that are clearly at-fault or expect to lose a court case for your injury are about as persistent as the FBI in finding you after the event. Leading up to surgery for a compound fracture, I was asked by nurses if i knew "my friend" from the amusement park and would allow them to see me. These were attorneys and PR representatives. two of them gave no name to the desk, one of them roamed the ER for 5 minutes trying to find me before being escorted out by security.
more reaching out.: I had 11 voicemails from various firms and individuals working directly with the amusement park. They all started the same, condolences for "the event" but never admitting anything more than "sad that i wasnt feeling well." I had two flower bouquets sent to my hospital room, both came with a stapled 20 page release/disclosure and instructions on how to sign and how to return.
helping hands: When i was discharged I had two separate requests to pay my hospital bill, neither directly from the amusement park but one suspiciously from a "health" provider. I also had about a dozen more voicemails growing increasingly urgent. At some point a pizza was sent to my house and a get-well-soon card. no sender was named. The next day four people in suits arrived at my door and wanted to talk about the incident insisting I could be liable for damages to the park if the matter wasnt resolved quickly.
The point is: lawyer up and dont settle. if someone is at fault for what happened the worst thing you can do is settle because nothing will get fixed. The company gets to claim no-fault, and can easily pay to have their story killed in the local news. My accident didnt even make the newspaper, but the company had to admit fault and disclose the event to shareholders. I was also successful in getting the rides full safety history disclosed, with more than 40 violations, which resulted in it being shut down. this triggered a full OSHA inspection, which shut down two more rides and ended up in documented fines and violations for the company.
Good people go to bed earlier.
...reach a settlement, but why would the daughter participate?
The damage to the car didn't look all that extensive - although perhaps some expensive sensors were damaged. I believe Arizona is a community property state so the husband may be obligated to pay for damages caused by the his wife's illegal jaywalking, but if the husband couldn't afford to pay for repairs, why would the daughter help out -- she has no legal obligation to do so.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
It's barely been two weeks.
They just need to agree on a number. It shouldn't take more than a few hours to look at some similar incidents for precedent. Dragging it out just means more money goes to the lawyers.
The family might barely have had time to grieve
Oh give me a break. She was homeless. Neither her daughter nor husband was even willing to let her sleep on their sofa. Do you really think they are so heartbroken that they need weeks to grieve?
It also just makes Uber look pretty shady that they just mumble some apologies and throw a ton of cash at the problem.
Yes it is amazing that Uber was willing to sully their otherwise pristine reputation. It would have been soooo much more ethical to drag the family through months or years of litigation.
You mean Uber could be bankrupted if they tried to take it to court. Tried in the daily press could have been extremely ugly.
It shouldn't take more than a few hours to look at some similar incidents for precedent.
Yet it's the first time a woman is killed by a self-driving car, so I don't see how. Convincing the parties that this is the same as any distracted driver hitting any jaywalker would be dishonest.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Uber's decision to settle quickly isn't necessarily because they thought they couldn't win. The company might simply be trying to get the news off the headlines which could hurt the reputation of driverless vehicles instead of having it dragged out for years as it goes through the legal process. Or they might have done the math and found it was simply cheaper to just pay the family and be done with it versus hire an army of lawyers for the next five years. It could be too that they didn't want to go too deep into their technology in a public court case, and this was a way to protect their proprietary findings.