It’s no surprise that there is a civil lawsuit arising from
the death of a woman who was killed by a self-driving Uber test car.
According to this NY
Times article, a local paper, The
Republic, reported that the family came to an immediate settlement
with Uber in March 2018. It had been
reported that Uber’s human driver, at the time of this accident, appeared to be
inattentive (i.e. watching videos on her phone) while in the driver’s seat.
A few months after this accident, the local
police cleared Uber of criminal charges. NPR
confirmed that no charges were laid against Uber because the
self-driving car detected the pedestrian crossing in front about 6 seconds
before impact. The Arizona
Republic explained that the Uber car did not stop because Uber had
disabled its automatic braking system.
Apparently the rationale for disabling this safety feature – automatic
braking - was because the automatic braking system activated too often and,
therefore, made for a ‘jerky’ ride. Wow.
The City
of Tempe, where the accident occurred, as well as the State of
Arizona are being sued for allowing Uber to test their vehicles without
adequate oversight. Also alleged is that
the brick pathway set out by the City (removed
by the City after this accident) and which was being used by the
victim was she was hit and killed, encouraged pedestrians to cross there,
without adequate lighting / street lights, etc.
Gregory Chang
Toronto Insurance Lawyer
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