Autonomous Vehicle News
The human who was behind the wheel of the first autonomous car to kill a pedestrian has avoided jail time – while ride-sharing giant Uber has continued to dodge criminal responsibility for the fatal incident. The ‘driver’ of an autonomous car – operated by ride-sharing giant Uber – which killed a pedestrian has reportedly been sentenced to three years of supervised probation, more than five years after the fatal incident occurred. In March 2018 , 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg was fatally struck by an Uber autonomous test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona – becoming the first pedestrian to be killed by a ‘self-driving’ car globally. While Ms Vasquez was charged with negligent homicide in 2020, technology publication Wired reports she recently pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of endangerment, resulting in a Maricopa County court handing down the three-year probation sentence this week. The publication reports Ms Vasquez could have faced four to eight years in jail had she been charged with negligent homicide, prompting her guilty plea to the lesser charge.