Uber Driver Was Streaming Hulu Just Before Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash, Says Police (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Tempe, Arizona, police have released a massive report on the fatal Uber vehicle crash that killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in March. The report provides more evidence that driver Rafaela Vasquez was distracted in the seconds before the crash. "This crash would not have occurred if Vasquez would have been monitoring the vehicle and roadway conditions and was not distracted,'' the report concludes. Police obtained records from Hulu suggesting that Vasquez was watching "The Voice," a singing talent competition that airs on NBC, just before the crash. Hulu's records showed she began watching the program at 9:16pm. Streaming of the show ended at 9:59pm, which "coincides with the approximate time of the collision," according to the police report.

Comments

Re:I remember a lot of people defending Uber

[Anonymous Coward]

Except it wasn't a dimly lit area, Uber's own diagnostics attested to this, she was spotted with plenty of time to come to a full stop if need be. Furthermore, this is an area with an average of 1.25 miles between marked crosswalks. Are you saying you would have made the half-mile hike to the next crossing?

Re:Is it inconceivable that they were just listeni

[tbuddy]

I'd say the video footage of them driving and spending maybe 10% of the time looking not down at the their phone would be somewhat proof.

“This crash would not have occurred if Vasquez would have been monitoring the vehicle and the roadway conditions and was not distracted,” investigators wrote. Police said Vasquez “was distracted and looking down” for 31 percent of the nearly 22 minutes before the crash, including 5.2 of the last 5.7 seconds.

Re: I remember a lot of people defending Uber

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

I have a friend who's a school bus driver. Using a cellphone while behind the wheel (even when parked) is a first-time termination offense. And remember, there is sound and video recording in school buses.

Re:They still should have had 2 people

[suutar]

As I recall, the vehicle had code that could stop automatically, but it was disabled. It also had code to warn the driver, but it was also disabled. Whoever decided that having both disabled should not be a fatal error should be fired, because if the driver knows the car can handle or warn, and expects the car to handle or warn, and is wrong, you get situations like this.

Re:I remember a lot of people defending Uber

[tattood]

Furthermore, this is an area with an average of 1.25 miles between marked crosswalks. Are you saying you would have made the half-mile hike to the next crossing?

If you bothered to check, you would have seen that the place where it happened was about 300 feet from a crosswalk.

Re:I remember a lot of people defending Uber

[r_naked]

To be fair, if the woman hadnâ(TM)t been jaywalking on a dimly lit street at night in front of oncoming traffic, the accident also wouldnâ(TM)t have happened. There were two people making poor decisions, their paths crossed, and one of them died because of it. It sucks.

The sensors detected her just fine, the software just decide: 'Ehhh fuck it -- I am not stopping"

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-p...