(Image source from: neris.pw)
While the market of online cabs has soared through, things are not always the brightest whenever you want it to be. Just last year, an Arizona woman was killed from an Uber hitting her while she was crossing her bicycle across the road.
The death of the woman did stir series of rage in the citizens around because nobody was aware of what the issue was that led to the accident happening without any further allocation. In a recent report issues by the US Agency from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated saying that the incident happened because the self driven car had software flaws in it.
The report issued by them also clarified stating that the company’s autonomous test vehicles that they have been trying around have already been in over 37 crashes over the span of 18 months.
NTSB is further going to make use of the findings from the very first fatal incident from the self driven car testing by the company to channel better recommendations on how the same does impacts on the entire industry around the prospect of the self-driving software issues.
The involved members in the board are going to meet on November 19, 2019 to further discuss the probable cause behind the accident in Tempe that ended up killing 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg in Arizona.
In the report released by the NTSB, it further clarified stating that the vehicle used by the Uber Technologies failed to identify Herzberg as a pedestrian crossing the street, thus ending up causing the fatal accident that led to her death.
The specific accident then went around sparking concerns in people surrounding the concerns of the nascent self driven cars in the industry which is focused on getting the same vehicles on the road for further commercial use.
Following the crash, Uber did focus on cancelling out all the possible testing until December of that year, especially in Pennsylvania. They then focused on working on revising and improving the software to further ensures better safety and security for the people on the road.
Sarah Abboud, who is part of the team of self driven cars at Uber suggested saying that the company does regret the death of the lady who lost her life because of the crash and further stated in a statement saying, “adopted critical program improvements to further prioritize safety. We deeply value the thoroughness of the NTSB's investigation into the crash and look forward to reviewing their recommendations."
Addressing these issues, NTSB has also further reported two prior crashes by the self driven Uber test vehicles. In addition to that, they also found that in between the time frame of September 2016 to March 2018, the company has actually been accused of being in 37 such crashes.
In one such crashes that happened between in that 18 months, it was found that the test vehicle ended up striking a bent bicycle lane post which was coming in the way of the car’s lane of travel. In another one of the incidents, the operator took control to swerve away from a rapidly approaching vehicle and in the meantime, went and hit another parked vehicle on the side.
NTSB further clarified stating that Uber technologies have collected a set of simulation data from accident that happened last year and has actually worked to improve the same. They have evolved their software to further detect the necessary signals and even be able to detect the pedestrians from 88 metres or around 4.5 seconds before the impact is about to happen.
By Somapika Dutta
