Autonomous Uber That Crashed in Arizona May Have Been Less Innocent Than Previously Thought

The recent collision in Tempe, Arizona, where an Uber Technologies driverless Volvo collided with another vehicle before rolling onto its side, might not have been as cut and dried as it originally seemed. While the Tempe Police Department originally deemed the autonomous car not to be at fault, the incident report suggest that it might have been taking the same sort of risks that any inattentive flesh-based operator might have.

EE Times obtained copies of the police report and reached out to Mike Demler, senior analyst at The Linley Group, to make sense of exactly what happened at the scene. The popular assumption was that a Ford Edge failed to yield during a left hand turn, impacting with the Volvo XC90 test vehicle and forcing it onto its side.

That’s not quite how it happened.

According to Demler’s analysis and the accounts listed in the police report, the first vehicle to make contact was actually a Honda CR-V that failed to yield. The Edge was struck afterward. While that places the legal blame squarely upon the Honda, it’s worth mentioning that traffic leading up to the intersection had stopped in the left and and center lanes after the light turned yellow.

Here’s how it happened: the Honda driver — already in the intersection — assumed it was safe to make the turn as traffic stopped in anticipation for the red. Seeing the Volvo approaching mid-turn, the driver immediately applied the brakes but still managed to make contact with its left side as it continued through the rightmost lane of the intersection.

The Volvo operator — who was allowing the vehicle to run in autonomous mode — states that the XC90 impacted with the CR-V at roughly the posted speed limit of 40 mph, making no attempt to stop. It had not reacted to the changing light or the slowing traffic.

Demler states that the self-driving Volvo took a pretty minor hit form the Honda but went out of control — colliding with a traffic signal pole as it veered right. The police report clearly states, “After it hit the pole on its passenger side, the Volvo bounced off, spun & flipped over, hitting vehicles #3 and which were stopped in traffic in the middle lane.”

That’s when it collided with the Ford and Hyundai seen in the dramatic photo tweeted by the Fresco News.

BREAKING: Self-driving Uber vehicle on it’s side after a collision in Tempe, AZ.

Photos by @fresconews user Mark Beach pic.twitter.com/5NCF2KG0rW

— Fresco News (@fresconews) March 25, 2017

While this still places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the the left-turning Honda CR-V, the Uber’s autonomous systems didn’t really do much to prevent a collision. You would assume that, with traffic at a standstill and the light changing, the Volvo’s computer would have decided to engage in some defensive driving.

The human occupants were clearly oblivious to one another until it was too late, but what was the Uber’s onboard systems doing in the moments leading up to the crash?

Demler had similar concerns. “The Volvo’s roof-mounted LIDAR should have been able to see the CR-V, though its radar and cameras may have been blocked by the stalled traffic on its left. It may have been traveling at too high a speed to properly react in time. The Volvo’s mapping/location software should have known there’s a left turn lane on both northbound and southbound [streets], so any vehicle in that lane intends to turn left.”

So, now that we know what happened, what the hell happened?

Uber hasn’t commented further and has urged any interested parties to reach out to the Tempe Police Department for additional information on the matter.