A video published by police yesterday raises some serious questions about Uber’s driverless-car technology.
The news: A video released by the Tempe, Arizona, police department shows what happened moments before one of Uber’s autonomous cars killed a pedestrian on Sunday. The driver was recorded by a camera inside the car, looking down (perhaps at her phone) for several seconds. Gut-wrenchingly, she looks up at the last moment to see someone walking into the car’s path.
What it means: Her distraction is, in fact, an indictment of the car’s technology. Experts have long warned that partial autonomy lulls people into a false sense of security, causing them to become dangerously disengaged. It can take many seconds for a person to regain situational awareness if something goes wrong.
Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.