Backup driver in the 1st death by fully autonomous car pleads guilty

PHOENIX (AP) — The backup Uber driver for a self-driving vehicle that killed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in 2018 pleaded guilty Friday to endangerment in the first fatal collision involving a fully autonomous car. Instead of the system, Uber relied on the human backup driver to intervene. It was not the first crash involving an Uber autonomous test vehicle. Herzberg’s death was the first involving an autonomous test vehicle but not the first in a car with some self-driving features. In Arizona, the Uber system detected Herzberg 5.6 seconds before the crash.