Don't Expect a Landmark Court Case From the Uber Self-driving Car Death

It had all the hallmarks of a groundbreaking case, one that might define the hazy legal boundaries that exist at the dawn of the autonomous vehicle age. Instead, a settlement.

The death, earlier this month, of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg at the self-guided hands of an Volvo XC90 operated by Uber Technologies Inc. in a Phoenix suburb immediately sparked questions of who was at fault. The company operating the pilot project? The automaker that supplied the vehicle for conversion to autonomous drive? The suppliers of the sensors and software needed to turn the SUV into a robot? Road and light conditions? The pedestrian? Or, perhaps, the human occupant whose eyes weren’t on the road prior to impact?

Questions still swirl around why the Uber vehicle’s sensors didn’t recognize the woman crossing a darkened highway with her bicycle, but we won’t hear them answered in a courtroom.

Herzberg’s family has reportedly settled with Uber, thus preventing a drawn-out legal battle. Neither Uber nor the law firm representing Herzberg’s husband and daughter have commented on the settlement or disclosed the sum. To them, the matter is closed.

What’s not over is Uber’s self-imposed testing ban and the ongoing pile-on from suppliers, rivals, and lawmakers. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey issued a stern rebuke earlier this week, claiming Uber had not upheld the safety standards he expected after declaring his state wide open for autonomous testing.

Velodyne, the supplier of the lidar technology that was supposed to see objects in the dark, claims the failure is on Uber’s end, pointing to faulty software. Aptiv, which supplies Volvo with radar and cameras for production vehicles, distanced itself from the issue by claiming Uber disconnected those devices in favor of its own. Even Mobileye — a chip supplier to Activ — said the software on a stock Volvo XC90 should have been able to notice Herzberg as she crossed the road. To prove its point, the Intel subsidiary tested its products against the crash video. Sure enough, it recognized the pedestrian before the fatal impact.

While Uber was able to quickly settle the matter with the deceased’s family, it awaits findings of investigations launched by the Tempe Police Department and the National Transportation Safety Board. These probes should identify the source(s) of the failure. Meanwhile, automakers and tech companies alike wait to see what becomes of their bold new frontier in mobility.

[Source: Reuters]