Self-driving Uber saw pedestrian 6 seconds before fatal crash, new NTSB report says

More details have emerged about the self-driving Uber car crash that killed a woman in Arizona earlier this year. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its preliminary findings Thursday about the March 18 fatal crash.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was struck and killed while walking a bicycle across a four-lane road in Tempe, Arizona. A 44-year-old Uber test driver was at the wheel of the modified 2017 Volvo XC90. The car was in autonomous mode and had been for the 19 minutes before the crash.

According to the report, the system first observed Herzberg through its radar and LIDAR sensors, which uses light to measure distances and objects, about six seconds before hitting her. At first the computer classified her as an "unknown object," then as a vehicle, and then as a bicyclePrevious reports had come out that the software misclassified Herzberg.  Read more...