Washington — The Uber Technologies self-driving test car that struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018 wasn’t programmed to recognise and react to jaywalkers, according to documents released by US safety investigators.
The documents paint a picture of safety and design lapses with tragic consequences, but don’t assign a cause for the crash. The safety board is scheduled to do that at a November 19 meeting in Washington. The case is being closely watched in the emerging industry of self-driving vehicles, a technology that has attracted billions of dollars in investment from companies such as General Motors and Alphabet in an attempt to transform transportation.
Uber made extensive changes to its self-driving system after several reviews of its operation and findings by NTSB investigators. The company told the NTSB that the new software would have been able to correctly identify Herzberg and triggered controlled braking to avoid her more than four seconds before the original impact, the NTSB said.