The safety operator who was behind the wheel of an autonomous test vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018 when it struck and killed a pedestrian named Elaine Herzberg has pleaded guilty to endangerment. Although she avoids prison time, many in the industry think the employee should have taken the case to trial to reveal safety lapses caused by her employer, Uber.
The 2018 crash is the first-known pedestrian fatality related to a fully autonomous vehicle, making this a historic case. Legally, it is viewed by many as a sign of who will bear the legal responsibility in accidents involving autonomous vehicles.
While this case would appear to reinforce that it is the people behind the wheel who are responsible, many think that the companies producing the technology should also bear responsibility, reports Wired. This situation is a prime example of why.
Read: Uber Is Selling Its Self-Driving Unit To Aurora Innovation
Rafaela Vasquez, 49, was the operator behind the wheel of the car at the time of the accident, and the case against her revolves around her use of a handheld device at the time of the accident.
Prosecutors allege that she was watching the television show, The Voice, on her phone at the time of the accident. Uber expressly forbade its operators from using personal handheld devices at the time, but Vasquez claims that she was merely listening to the show, something that was allowed on the long, lonely, repetitive routes.
Her defense team says that she was using her company phone to check the Slack channel at the time of the crash, something that was a requirement of the job. Others working at Uber’s now folded autonomy department say that the company’s safety measures were lax, and that it was a matter of time before an accident like this one occurred. In particular, Robbie Miller, an operations manager who became a whistleblower against the company, said that he hoped Vasquez would fight the case.
“I do think she has some responsibility in this, but I really don’t think what they’re doing to her is right,” Miller told Wired. “I think she was just put in a really bad situation where a lot of other people under the same set of circumstances would have made that mistake.”
The uncertainty of trials is likely part of what prompted Vasquez to take a deal, though. By pleading guilty to endangerment, she avoids prison time, and has been sentenced to three years of supervised probation.
