The first fatal accident between an autonomous vehicle and a pedestrian is due to a wrong software setting. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was killed on March 19 in Tempe, Arizona by a driverless taxi Uber in the test phase. The victim, who was walking on the road pushing a bicycle, was overturned at about 60 km / h by the vehicle.
According to the site The Information On Wednesday, citing sources close to the case, the sensors of the modified Volvo SUV have yet detected and identified the victim. But it is, then, the general software of the vehicle which did not judge good to avoid it.
Adjustment too soft to avoid unwanted braking
This decision with dramatic consequences is related, reports The Information, to a too flexible setting of the software to avoid “false positives”. These caused the car to inadvertently brake, for example for a simple plastic bag carried by the wind on the road. Reworked to erase these errors, the SUV’s on-board computer felt it did not have enough information to rule out a “false positive” and reacted too late.
The article also points out the responsibility of the driver present in the vehicle. Supposed to overcome software errors during testing, he would not have paid enough attention to the road. The accident must be reported by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board.
Arizona has since suspended Uber’s tests on his roads. Some manufacturers, like Toyota, have also reacted by announcing interrupting their own tests .
If the death of Eleine Herzberg is the first case of fatal collision involving a pedestrian, two other accidents have already cost the lives of drivers. In May 2016, a man was killed in Florida driving a Tesla Model-S while driving – speeding – under autopilot . And on March 23, another motorist found dead in California aboard a Tesla Model-X . The involvement of the autopilot has not yet been formally determined.