TEMPE, Ariz. - The family of the woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle.

Cristina Perez Hesano, attorney with the firm of Bellah Perez in Glendale, Arizona, said "the matter has been resolved"between Uber and daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died after being hit by an Uber self-driving SUV in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe earlier this month.

Terms of the settlement were not given. The law firm representing them said that Herzberg's daughter and husband, whose names were not disclosed, will have no further comment on the matter as they consider it resolved.

Fall-out from the accident could stall the development and testing of self-driving vehicles, which are designed to eventually perform far better than human drivers and sharply reduce the number of motor vehicle fatalities that occur each year.

Uber and microchip developer Nvidia Corp have put self-driving car testing programs on hold following the fatality, which is believed to be the first death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving vehicle.

The fatality also presents an unprecedented liability challenge because self-driving vehicles, which are still in the development stage, involve a complex system of hardware and software often made by outside suppliers.

Herzberg was jay-walking across a divided four-lane road with her bicycle when she was struck.

A video taken from a dash-mounted camera inside the vehicle that was released by Tempe police showed the SUV travelling along a dark street when suddenly the headlights illuminated Herzberg in front of the SUV.

Other footage showed the human driver who was behind the wheel mostly looking down and not at the road in the seconds before the accident. </s> PHOENIX — The family of an Arizona woman killed when struck by an autonomous Uber vehicle apparently has reached a settlement with the company.

Cristina Perez Hesano, an attorney for the daughter and husband of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, said the matter “has been resolved.”

Herzberg was killed March 18 as she walked her bike across a dark street in Tempe, a Phoenix suburb.

Uber representatives Sarah Abboud and Matthew Wing separately responded about a possible settlement by saying the San Francisco-based company is declining to comment.

The company previously expressed sympathy for Herzberg’s family and said it would cooperate with investigators.

There was no indication Herzberg’s relatives had filed a lawsuit against Uber in connection with the crash, which Tempe police and federal agencies are investigating.

On March 21, Tempe police released a 22-second video showing Herzberg walking from a darkened area onto a street just before an Uber SUV strikes her.

The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it struck Herzberg, police said.

The human backup driver appears to be looking down until just before impact.

The fatal crash in Tempe was the first pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving vehicle in the United States.

Uber suspended its autonomous vehicle testing program in Arizona, California, Pittsburgh and Toronto after the crash.

Ducey said in a letter to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage of the crash raised concerns about the company’s ability to safely test its technology in Arizona.

Ducey said he expects public safety to be the top priority for those who operate self-driving cars.

“The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation,” Ducey said.

Ducey previously welcomed Uber and other autonomous vehicle companies to use Arizona as a place for testing under few, if any, regulations.

In early March, he authorized self-driving vehicle companies to run tests without a person in the car to act as a safety operator. </s> TEMPE/SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - Uber was likely not at fault in the accident in Tempe, Arizona, where a woman was struck and killed by one of Uber’s self-driving cars on Sunday (March 18), the authorities said on Monday, though concerns have been raised over possible challenges faced by the promising technology.

The San Francisco Chronicle late Monday reported that Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir said that from viewing videos taken from the vehicle "it's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway".

Moir told the Chronicle, "I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident," but she did not rule out that charges could be filed against the operator in the Uber vehicle, the paper reported.

An Uber self-driving car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona on Monday, marking the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.

The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto.

So-called robot cars, when fully developed by companies including Uber, Alphabet Inc and General Motors Co , are expected to drastically cut down on motor vehicle fatalities and create billion-dollar businesses.

But Monday's accident underscored the possible challenges ahead for the promising technology as the cars confront real-world situations involving real people.

US lawmakers have been debating legislation that would speed introduction of self-driving cars.

"This tragic accident underscores why we need to be exceptionally cautious when testing and deploying autonomous vehicle technologies on public roads," said Democratic Senator Edward Markey, a member of the transportation committee, in a statement.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe about 10pm MST Sunday (0400 GMT Monday) when she was struck by the Uber vehicle travelling at about 65km per hour, police said.

The Volvo XC90 SUV was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel. Herzberg later died from her injuries in a hospital, police said.

"The pedestrian was outside of the crosswalk. As soon as she walked into the lane of traffic she was struck," Tempe Police Sergeant Ronald Elcock told reporters at a news conference. He said he did not yet know how close Herzberg was to the vehicle when she stepped into the lane.

Elcock said he believed Herzberg may have been homeless.

The “Tempe Police Department does not determine fault in vehicular collisions,” the department said in a statement late Monday, in reply to questions from Reuters about the chief’s comments.

“Ultimately the investigation will be submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review and any potential charges.”

Tempe authorities and federal officials are still investigating the incident. Canada's transportation ministry in Ontario, where Uber conducts testing, also said it was reviewing the accident.

Volvo, the Swedish car brand owned by China's Geely , said the software controlling the car in the crash was not its own.

Video footage will aid the ongoing investigation, and the case would be submitted to the district attorney, Elcock said.

"Our investigators have that information, and they will be using that in their investigation as well as the Maricopa County Attorney's Office as part of their investigation," said Elcock.

"They are going to attempt to try to find who was possibly at fault and how we can better be safe, whether it's pedestrians or whether it's the vehicle itself."

Uber and Waymo on Friday urged Congress to pass sweeping legislation to speed the introduction of self-driving cars into the United States. Some congressional Democrats have blocked the legislation over safety concerns, and Monday's fatality could hamper passage of the bill, congressional aides said Monday.

Safety advocates called for a national moratorium on all robot car testing on public roads.

"Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place," said Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, in a statement. "That's why Uber and Waymo test there. When there's no sheriff in town, people get killed."

Arizona has opened its arms to companies testing self-driving vehicles as a means to economic growth and jobs.

Republican Governor Doug Ducey reached out to Uber in 2016 after California regulators cracked down on the company over its failure to obtain testing permits.

Self-driving cars being tested routinely get into fender-benders with other vehicles. Last week, a self-driving Uber crashed with another vehicle in Pittsburgh, local news reported. There were no injuries.

A year ago, Uber temporarily grounded its self-driving cars for a few days following a crash with another car in Tempe. The company has been the subject of a number of complaints about its autonomous vehicles, but the company has said the cars were being driven by a human driver at the time of the incidents.

Uber has said its ability to build autonomous cars is essential to its success in the rapidly changing transportation industry. The company envisions a network of autonomous cars that would be summoned through the Uber app that would supplement - and eventually replace - human-driven cars.

Uber has logged 2 million self-driving miles (3.2 million km) through December. The company has more than 100 autonomous cars testing on the roads of the greater Phoenix area, the company's prime testing ground due to the state's loose regulations and hospitable weather.

Rain, snow and ice are particularly challenging for autonomous cars. The company also tests in Pittsburgh and Toronto.

Concerns over the safety of autonomous vehicles flared after a July 2016 fatality involving a Tesla Inc automobile with a partially autonomous system that required human supervision. Safety regulators later determined Tesla was not at fault. </s> TEMPE, Ariz. (Reuters) - The family of the woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle.

Cristina Perez Hesano, attorney with the firm of Bellah Perez in Glendale, Arizona, said “the matter has been resolved” between Uber and daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died after being hit by an Uber self-driving SUV in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe earlier this month.

Terms of the settlement were not given. The law firm representing them said that Herzberg’s daughter and husband, whose names were not disclosed, will have no further comment on the matter as they consider it resolved.

Fall-out from the accident could stall the development and testing of self-driving vehicles, which are designed to eventually perform far better than human drivers and sharply reduce the number of motor vehicle fatalities that occur each year.

Uber has suspended its testing in the wake of the incident. Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and chipmaker Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) have also suspended self-driving car testing on public roads, as they and other companies await the results of an ongoing investigation into the Tempe incident, which is believed to be the first death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving vehicle.

Uber does not use the self-driving platform architecture of Nvidia, the chipmaker’s Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Wednesday.

The March 18 fatality near downtown Tempe also presents an unprecedented liability challenge because self-driving vehicles, which are still in the development stage, involve a complex system of hardware and software often made by outside suppliers.

Herzberg was was walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road when she was struck. A video taken from a dash-mounted camera inside the vehicle that was released by Tempe police showed the SUV traveling along a dark street when suddenly the headlights illuminated Herzberg in front of the SUV.

Other footage showed the human driver who was behind the wheel mostly looking down and not at the road in the seconds before the accident. </s> Uber Reaches Settlement With Family Of Arizona Woman Killed By Driverless Car

Uber Technologies has reached a settlement with the family of the woman killed earlier this month in Tempe, Arizona, after one of the company's driverless test vehicles struck her as she was crossing a street.

Member station KJZZ in Tempe reports that an attorney for the victim's family, Christina Perez Hesano, confirmed the settlement Wednesday night, but provided few details.

"The matter has been resolved," Hesano said, adding that the settlement was between Uber and the daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49.

The names of Herzberg's daughter and husband were not disclosed and the attorney said there would be no further comment.

Herzberg was seen in a dashcam video released last week from the self-driving SUV that hit her. It shows her walking a bicycle across a darkened road moments before the fatal impact.

Her death is believed to be the first involving a pedestrian struck by a self-driving vehicle.

An internal camera in the Uber test vehicle showed the human safety driver mostly looking down and not at the road in the moments before the crash.

KJZZ's Jimmy Jenkins says that earlier this week Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey instructed the Department of Transportation to suspend Uber's ability to test driverless cars on public roadways in Arizona.

Uber says it has halted testing while it works with the police and federal officials to learn more about the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board says its investigation into the incident will take 12 to 14 months. </s> A woman walking outside a crosswalk in Phoenix was killed when she was hit by a self-driving car

Police say a woman walking outside a crosswalk on Sunday night in the Phoenix area when she was hit by the self-driving car. (@zombieite/Flickr)

Uber Technologies Inc. has suspended all of its self-driving vehicle testing — including a program in Toronto — after what is believed to be the first fatal pedestrian crash involving autonomous vehicles.

Uber’s testing was halted after police in a Phoenix suburb said one of its self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian overnight Sunday.

The vehicle was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel when a woman walking outside of a crosswalk was hit, Tempe police Sgt. Ronald Elcock said.

The woman died of her injuries at a hospital.

“Some incredibly sad news out of Arizona,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Twitter.

“We’re thinking of the victim’s family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.”

The testing has been going on for months in Toronto, the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh and San Francisco as automakers and technology companies compete to be the first with the technology.

Uber Canada said Monday in an email that two of its vehicles are being tested in Toronto but they have not been picking up passengers.

It said testing has been conducted since last fall, using software that was studied in simulation and on the test track before being deployed to the road.

But the fatality isn’t likely to derail the driverless vehicle industry because it is at such an early stage in its development, said Ross McKenzie, managing director at the University of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research.

“I’m shocked. It’s very, very disappointing,” he said.

“It’s shocking because it’s something we aspire to never have happen. The whole purpose of autonomous driving is to make the operation of vehicles safer because you take out of equation the random, unpredictable behaviour of human operators, like speeding to get through an amber light or taking your eyes off the road to pick up a coffee cup.”

He added the incident will serve to further focus the industry on safety.

Related: Uber official says public needs to push for ridesharing in B.C.

The Waterloo research centre has a four-car fleet of autonomous car it is currently testing. McKenzie said most of the testing takes place on a closed track but the first tests on a public road took place last year.

More on-road testing is scheduled for this year and he said the incident has not resulted in any immediate change to that schedule.

Canada has been slow to embrace driverless vehicles but some advances have been made.

In January, Suncor Energy Inc. announced it would go ahead with a project to deploy driverless ore-hauling trucks at its remote oilsands mines in northern Alberta to replace the ones humans operate.

The initiative, which follows years of testing, is expected to eliminate about 400 jobs. The Calgary-based company plans to build a 150-truck fleet of 400-tonne capacity Komatsu trucks over the next six years.

Last week, Magna International announced a deal with Lyft Inc., an American ride-hailing company that competes with Uber, to develop advanced driverless car technology through a multi-year partnership and a US$200 million investment in Lyft.

Magna is to earn the exclusive right to manufacture kits to be used to convert Lyft’s fleet into autonomous, driverless vehicles. The kits will include cameras, radar and other sensors required for the vehicles as well as software developed by the two companies, using Magna’s manufacturing expertise and Lyft’s data from its ride-sharing operations.

In October, BlackBerry QNX launched testing of a self-driving car in Ottawa with what was billed as the first on-street test of an autonomous vehicle in Canada after opening an innovation centre in late 2016.

Meanwhile, a Canadian Senate committee warned in a report earlier this year departments and levels of government are taking contradictory approaches to automated vehicles and the federal government needs to better co-ordinate action.

It recommended giving the privacy commissioner greater reach over how car companies use drivers’ information, including whether personal information can be monetized, and giving federal cybersecurity officials a bigger role in protecting the new technology from hackers.

The committee also said the government must invest more in its own research to deal with questions of safety, such as how to ensure a driverless car can safely navigate a snow-covered road.

It said self-driving cars could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost productivity and limit the number of collisions caused by human error.

But the technology could also lead to job losses in transportation sectors where some 1.1 million people are employed, including truck, bus, and taxi drivers. The Liberals, the committee said, must put in place job re-training programs for those whose jobs will be affected, and ensure sectors like after-market companies can maintain a foothold as new, automated cars hit the roads.

The U.S. federal government has voluntary guidelines for companies that want to test autonomous vehicles, leaving much of the regulation up to states.

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In what is believed to be the first death of a pedestrian hit by a self-driving car on a public street, a woman in Tempe, Arizona, was killed in an accident involving an Uber autonomous vehicle Sunday night — and Uber immediately suspended its testing of such vehicles.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was struck as she walked from west to east outside of a crosswalk, according to Tempe police. Herzberg was then transported to a local hospital, where she died. Police said the incident was still part of an active investigation and that Uber is assisting with the matter.

The incident comes at a particularly inopportune time for self-driving car companies in California: The state is set to allow autonomous cars, without any human support behind the wheel, for testing and transporting people on public roads beginning April 2.

Herzberg’s death prompted a call Monday for a nationwide suspension of self-driving car tests on public roads from a group that has criticized the rapid roll-out of such testing.

But while the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Monday it would seek information from Uber about the deadly Arizona crash, it didn’t say whether it would postpone the April 2 start of autonomous car tests in California without any human support behind the wheel.

Uber confirmed the Arizona accident occurred and that there was a person in a front passenger seat acting as operator of the vehicle. The giant San Francisco-based startup said that as a result of the accident, it is putting a hold on all tests involving its self-driving cars. In addition to Arizona, the ride-sharing company has been running tests of self-driving cars in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto.

Uber said it has more than 200 self-driving cars as part of its autonomous vehicle testing program.

“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident,” said an Uber spokesperson in a statement provided to this news organization.

John Simpson, privacy and technology project director at the nonpartisan group Consumer Watchdog, which has been critical of rapid growth of the self-driving car technology industry, said the fatality “underscores the difficulty robot cars have in interacting with pedestrians and cyclists.” He called for an immediate national moratorium on the testing of self-driving cars on public roads until an independent analysis of what caused the accident can be completed.

“Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing, with virtually no regulations in place,” Simpson said. “That’s why Uber and (Alphabet-owned) Waymo test there. When there’s no sheriff in town, people get killed.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is sending a team of four investigators to Tempe to look into the factors surrounding the accident.

The California DMV also said it plans to seek answers from Uber, though it stopped short of saying whether the crash would affect plans for testing on public roads of self-driving cars with no human support behind the wheel.

“The California DMV takes the safe operation of our autonomous vehicle permit holders very seriously,” the agency said in a statement. “The California DMV has many requirements in place for testing permit holders and requires collision reports and annual disengagement reports. We are aware of the Uber crash in Arizona, but we have not been briefed on the details of the crash at this time. We plan to follow up with Uber to get more information.”
• Lyft links up with Canada’s Magna on self-driving cars
• New report details all the triggers that have caused the human behind the wheel to take over
• Self-driving cars get OK for California public roads Tim Bajarin, president of tech consultancy Creative Strategies, said Sunday’s fatality shows that the technology behind autonomous vehicles is “by no means ready for prime time,” despite all the attention and investment being given to it.

“This underlines that this technology is still years away from being safe enough to use in real-world settings,” he said. “We need a lot more in the way of technological breakthroughs before autonomous vehicles ever hit the road in a broad way.”

Tempe police said the woman was crossing Mill Avenue outside of a crosswalk just south of Curry Road when she was struck by a northbound car. That stretch of road runs alongside Papago Park north of the Salt River. </s> Uber Technologies Inc. halted autonomous vehicle tests after one of its cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, in what is likely the first pedestrian fatality involving the technology.

OK, that’s me talking, not Uber and certainly not the car manufacturers who are making the death machines. But what they’re admitting with their actions is that they haven’t figured out how to make them safe :

It may very well be that no party was at fault, and that’s the whole problem. If the car didn’t have the ability to drive itself, then a human being would have been at the wheel with his feet on the pedals, giving the car at least a fighting chance to stop before hitting and killing the woman who was walking her bike.

Companies including Alphabet Inc., General Motors Co., Uber and Baidu Inc. are investing billions of dollars to develop autonomous-vehicle technology because it has the potential to transform the auto industry, transportation in general and the way cities work. One analyst has estimated Alphabet’s Waymo unit is worth at least $70 billion. The fatality in Tempe could slow testing, delay commercialization and undermine such optimism.

Uber said on Monday that it was pausing tests of all its self-driving vehicles on public roads in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto and the greater Phoenix area. “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”

After the incident, which happened at 10 p.m. local time on Sunday, she was transferred to a nearby hospital, where she died from her injuries. “Uber is assisting and this is still an active investigation,” Liliana Duran, a Tempe police spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.

The 49-year-old woman, Elaine Herzberg, was crossing the road outside of a crosswalk when the Uber vehicle operating in autonomous mode under the supervision of a human safety driver struck her, according to the Tempe Police Department.

If it’s the first death involving a pedestrian, it’s only because there aren’t that many driverless cars on the road yet. Let them proliferate as much as some people want, and you’re going to see that number explode.

Much speculation surrounding this accident has focused on the fact that the victim wasn’t crossing at the crosswalk. Supposedly the driverless cars are programmed to recognize when they’re approaching a crosswalk - which is supposed to add to the safety of pedestrians - but they have no notion of what to do if someone tries to cross the road outside the crosswalk.

Yeah, that’s jaywalking. Usually the penalty for that isn’t death.

The very fact that Uber felt the need to employ a “safety driver” tells you they’re not 100 percent convinced of the safety of the driverless cars. Nor should they be. There’s no way to do a realistic simulation that can show what will happen when the driverless cars operate in large numbers on roads built for driver, and in the midst of driver-controlled cars, bicyclists and pedestrians. One can only imagine the things that will go wrong, and then they’ll send the cars back to the University of Michigan testing grounds to “find out what happened” while people are being buried.

Here’s a question: The need cars have to be driven by a human . . . why is that a problem that needs to be solved? Humans don’t always drive that well, but at least they possess the senses that make them fully capable of operating a vehicle safely, even if they often don’t. A human being can get rip-roaring drunk and get behind the wheel of a car - and I’ve long believed those convicted of DUI should do serious prison time on the first offense - but even serious drunk would have had a chance of stopping that car when Elaine Herzberg tried walking her bike across the street. The “autonomous car” has no concept of why it should stop, so it doesn’t.

Why do we need these cars? What possible benefit are we missing out on if we just keep making cars that people have to drive? </s> A self-driving Volvo SUV from the ride-hailing giant Uber traveling at 64 km per hour has killed a woman in the US state of Arizona, triggering a heated debate on whether autonomous cars are safe enough and who is to blame for the death.

Social media users expressed sadness and regret for the death of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was pushing her bicycle across the street in Tempe City when she was hit by the Uber self-driving vehicle on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to Tempe police, the victim was walking outside of the crosswalk when she was hit by the car, which was in autonomous mode at that time although a vehicle operator was behind the wheel.

The woman was taken to a hospital where she died from her injuries.

"Our hearts go out to the victim's family," Uber said on its official Twitter page. "We're fully cooperating with Police and local authorities as they investigate this incident."

Reaction was strong and diverse across the US especially in the west, where Arizona, California and Utah had been vying to become the first American state to allow widespread use of self-driving cars by the end of 2018.

The argument that cars driven by people cause thousands of deaths a year was one of many used by a majority of Americans who defended the fledgling self-driving car industry.

Voices of concern on social media noted that forthcoming details of the tragedy will reveal every possible angle and explanation for what transpired.

"This will probably be the most well-documented and studied car-on-pedestrian crash in history," "Ignatius 345" wrote on MacRumors forum.

"It's important to remember that the car probably recorded this accident in extreme detail and we'll know exactly what happened soon enough," wrote Nela K on ArsTechnica, a tech news and analysis website.

From across the Atlantic Ocean in England, industry experts voiced dismay but hoped that self-driving car progress and adaptation will not be slowed.

"It is very unfortunate that a fatality has arisen," University of York Professor John McDermid said, "but it serves to draw attention to the need for widely accepted approaches to assessing the safety of autonomous systems."

Still, most bloggers were looking for solutions and not to point blame for the terrible event -- the first time a person was killed by a self-driving car, the New York Times reported.

Autonomous vehicles from Uber have been operating in Arizona since February of 2017, part of a national series of tests of autonomous vehicles.

In 2016, Joshua Brown, 40, of Ohio was killed when his Tesla Model S electric sedan crashed into a tractor-trailer while reportedly in autopilot mode. (IANS)
A woman in Tempe, Arizona, dies after being hit by a self-driving car operated by Uber, in what appears to be the first death of a pedestrian struck by an autonomous vehicle on public roads. In response to the fatal accident, Uber suspends self-driving car tests in all U.S. cities as well as Toronto.