# Uber driver was streaming Hulu before crash; May be charged with manslaughter



## BurgerTiime (Jun 22, 2015)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...driving-car-crash-police-report-idUSKBN1JI0LB








SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police in Tempe, Arizona said evidence showed the "safety" driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber was distracted and streaming a television show on her phone right up until about the time of a fatal accident in March, deeming the crash that rocked the nascent industry "entirely avoidable."

A 318-page report from the Tempe Police Department, released late on Thursday in response to a public records request, said the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, repeatedly looked down and not at the road, glancing up just a half second before the car hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was crossing the street at night.

According to the report, Vasquez could face charges of vehicle manslaughter. Police said that, based on testing, the crash was "deemed entirely avoidable" if Vasquez had been paying attention.

Police obtained records from Hulu, an online service for streaming television shows and movies, which showed Vasquez's account was playing the television talent show "The Voice" the night of the crash for about 42 minutes, ending at 9:59 p.m., which "coincides with the approximate time of the collision," the report says.

It is not clear if Vasquez will be charged, and police submitted their findings to county prosecutors, who will make the determination. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office referred the case to the Yavapai County Attorney's office because of a conflict and that office could not be reached late Thursday.

Vasquez could not immediately be reached for comment and Reuters could not locate her attorney.

The Uber car was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash, but Uber, like other self-driving car developers, requires a back-up driver in the car to intervene when the autonomous system fails or a tricky driving situation occurs.

Vasquez looked up just 0.5 seconds before the crash, after keeping her head down for 5.3 seconds, the Tempe Police report said. Uber's self-driving Volvo SUV was traveling at just under 44 miles-per-hour.

Uber declined to comment.

Last month, an Uber spokeswoman said the company was undergoing a "top-to-bottom safety review," and had brought on a former federal transportation official to help improve the company's safety culture. The company prohibits the use of any mobile device by safety drivers while the self-driving cars are on a public road, and drivers are told they can be fired for violating this rule.

Police said a review of video from inside the car showed Vasquez was looking down during the trip, and her face "appears to react and show a smirk or laugh at various points during the times that she is looking down." The report found that Vasquez "was distracted and looking down" for close to seven of the nearly 22 minutes prior to the collision.

Tempe Police Detective Michael McCormick asked Hulu for help in the investigation, writing in a May 10 email to the company that "this is a very serious case where the charges of vehicle manslaughter may be charged, so correctly interpreting the information provided to us is crucial." Hulu turned over the records on May 31.

According to a report last month by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is also investigating the crash, Vasquez told federal investigators she had been monitoring the self-driving interface in the car and that neither her personal nor business phones were in use until after the crash. That report showed Uber had disabled the emergency braking system in the Volvo, and Vasquez began braking less than a second after hitting Herzberg.

Herzberg, who was homeless, was walking her bicycle across the street, outside of a crosswalk on a four-lane road, the night of March 18 when she was struck by the front right side of the Volvo.

The police report faulted Herzberg for "unlawfully crossing the road at a location other than a marked crosswalk."

In addition to the report, police released on Thursday a slew of audio files of 911 calls made by Vasquez, who waited at the scene for police, and bystanders the night of the crash; photographs of Herzberg's damaged bicycle and the Uber car; and videos from police officers' body cameras that capture the minutes after the crash, including harrowing screams in the background.

The crash dealt Uber a major setback in its efforts to develop self-driving cars, and the company shuttered its autonomous car testing program in Arizona after the incident. It says it plans to begin testing elsewhere this summer, although in some cities it will have to first win over increasingly wary regulators.


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## Working4peanuts (Jan 16, 2018)

What should uber have expected? Uber execs should be thrown in jail.


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## 1.5xorbust (Nov 22, 2017)

There was some really good stuff on Hulu when that happened.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

I wonder if he, she, it was watching Airplane during the point of impact?

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...90A7A0AA321975A90C3390A7A0AA321975A&FORM=VIRE


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

BurgerTiime said:


> Vasquez told federal investigators she had been monitoring the self-driving interface in the car and that neither her personal nor business phones were in use until after the crash.


Lying to federal investigators.



BurgerTiime said:


> The report found that Vasquez "was distracted and looking down" for close to seven of the nearly 22 minutes before the accident."


Well, thats about par for the course. Uber charges only 1/3 the going rate for a cab ride so their drivers need only to pay attention for 2/3 of the ride.


BurgerTiime said:


> According to the report, Vasquez could face charges of vehicle manslaughter. Police said that, based on testing, the crash was "deemed entirely avoidable" if Vasquez had been paying attention. It is not clear if Vasquez will be charged, and police submitted their findings to county prosecutors


Oh, it's crystal clear if Vasquez will be charged. Gov Ducey will make sure of that. Ducey needs to do everything he can to seperate his favoritism of Uber to himself. Uber's allowance to freely test drive autonomous vehicles on AZ roads with no regulations whatsoever was a "gift" from Gov Ducey.

With this report becoming public then I wouldn't be surprised to see the family of Elaine Herzberg file suit against the Gov's Office for his non regulatory oversight of Uber's autonomous testing. Gov. Ducey should also be charged with negligent manslaughter.


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## rex jones (Jun 6, 2017)

Apparently people watching tv on their phones (while driving) is a ****ing thing now. Shit blows my mind.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

If you go back to the earlier threads, you'll see a lot of comments about the human driver doing nothing wrong, Uber doing nothing wrong -- that the whole thing was the homeless pedestrian's fault.

Now we know two things that people were too impatient to wait for:

Uber's Lidar sensors spotted the victim long before she became visible in the video Uber released to the police. However, *Uber's SDC "brain" took no action* on that spotting until it was way too late to save her life.
*The driver was watching a show on her phone*, not monitoring anything, contrary to what she told investigators.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

Working4peanuts said:


> What should uber have expected? Uber execs should be thrown in jail.


Precisely. This is what $11/hr gets you


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## michael7227 (Oct 29, 2016)

She thought she hit the easy button when she landed that job. It's never easy.

Uber will never back you when something goes down.

For what she might get in the end, you might as well drive a normal Uber and make your OWN mistakes!


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

And it all gets put on the driver...

With pilots...they call it pilot error...

With this...it is robotic error...

With the human not watching...

Lesson to be learned...

ALWAYS WATCH YOUR ROBOT...8>)

Take your eyes off of it for a few seconds...

Bubye....8>O

Rakos


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## Brooklyn (Jul 29, 2014)

I don’t get how these companies can get away with stuff like this.. I 100% understand the driver being at fault.. but for Uber to go into a market illegally until they’re legalized.. then say they’re putting robotic cars and not taking ANY blame is ridiculous. 

Uber and driver are at fault. 

Uber “yea our systems failed but it’s not our fault! Look at the person who we chose to be in charge of our systems!”


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

Brooklyn said:


> I don't get how these companies can get away with stuff like this.. I 100% understand the driver being at fault.. but for Uber to go into a market illegally until they're legalized.. then say they're putting robotic cars and not taking ANY blame is ridiculous.
> 
> Uber and driver are at fault.
> 
> Uber "yea our systems failed but it's not our fault! Look at the person who we chose to be in charge of our systems!"


Major Uber fail...

Get a monkey...8>)

Rakos


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

Brooklyn said:


> I don't get how these companies can get away with stuff like this.. I 100% understand the driver being at fault.. but for Uber to go into a market illegally until they're legalized.. then say they're putting robotic cars and not taking ANY blame is ridiculous.
> 
> Uber and driver are at fault.
> 
> Uber "yea our systems failed but it's not our fault! Look at the person who we chose to be in charge of our systems!"


EXACTLY. Not "...not our fault," but DOUBLY AT FAULT: POS SDC system, POS system management, POS driver selection decision (convicted felon), POS driver. Dead body as a result.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

Brooklyn said:


> I don't get how these companies can get away with stuff like this..


It's easy. Just throw a couple hundred thousand at the family of the deceased and contribute to the campaigns of the elected officials. Everyone has a price.


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## BurgerTiime (Jun 22, 2015)

On the news Uber stated they don’t want drivers distracted yet they posted have Karaoke machines in your car. Yeah not distracting at all. Wtf!!???!!!


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Why am i not surprised...

I've been blaming her for a long time i believe...


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## SatMan (Mar 20, 2017)

Brooklyn said:


> I don't get how these companies can get away with stuff like this.. I 100% understand the driver being at fault.. but for Uber to go into a market illegally until they're legalized.. then say they're putting robotic cars and not taking ANY blame is ridiculous.
> 
> Uber and driver are at fault.
> 
> Uber "yea our systems failed but it's not our fault! Look at the person who we chose to be in charge of our systems!"


I don't get how these companies can get away with stuff like this.....$$$, $$$, $$$!


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## ntcindetroit (Mar 23, 2017)

1. It was [her account] streaming the Hulu, before a Uber company owned vehicle killed a biker.
2. That being said, who know what her job description or test script was for that test run? Did she have any knowledge how unsafe the Uber car was when she was told to drive or just sit in to make sure the odometer is rolling? 
3. Who is to blame for the accident? the Uber car definitely is not ready for test if it fails to detect and/or classify correctly any other road user(s). It's not roadshare ready for sure.


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## Kodyhead (May 26, 2015)

That's what's wrong with this generation, I read books while driving. TV is destroying our country especially these reality shows smh


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

ntcindetroit said:


> 1. It was [her account] streaming the Hulu, before a Uber company owned vehicle killed a biker.
> 2. That being said, who know what her job description or test script was for that test run? Did she have any knowledge how unsafe the Uber car was when she was told to drive or just sit in to make sure the odometer is rolling?
> 3. Who is to blame for the accident? the Uber car definitely is not ready for test if it fails to detect and/or classify correctly any other road user(s). It's not roadshare ready for sure.


The whole point of having a driver in the car is because they arn't safe enough to turn on and "let them run"


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

ntcindetroit said:


> 1. It was [her account] streaming the Hulu, before a Uber company owned vehicle killed a biker.
> 2. That being said, who know what her job description or test script was for that test run? Did she have any knowledge how unsafe the Uber car was when she was told to drive or just sit in to make sure the odometer is rolling?
> 3. Who is to blame for the accident? the Uber car definitely is not ready for test if it fails to detect and/or classify correctly any other road user(s). It's not roadshare ready for sure.


Complacency KILLS


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## ntcindetroit (Mar 23, 2017)

tohunt4me said:


> Complacency KILLS


We'd think it's incompetency.....


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## Bart McCoy (Nov 4, 2014)

If I can't watch Hulu, then I'm never buying a self driving vehicle. That completely defeats the purpose.

I doubt she will be charged.
Not sure how they concluded a few seconds of looking down GUARANTEES that the accident could have been avoided.
The accident could have been 100% avoided if the pedestrian used a crosswalk AND looked both ways before crossing the street


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

Bart McCoy said:


> If I can't watch Hulu, then I'm never buying a self driving vehicle. That completely defeats the purposely.
> 
> I doubt she will be charged.
> Not sure how they concluded a few seconds of looking down GUARANTEES that the accident could have been avoided.
> The accident could have been 100% avoided if the pedestrian used a crosswalk AND looked both ways before crossing the street


No matter...

The robot killed a human...

What do you think would happen...

If a monkey killed a human...8>O

Rakos


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