Here’s the fundamental flaw with self-driving cars: Humans

The safety driver in a self-driving Uber was not being very safe — aka, not paying attention — when the vehicle in autonomous mode struck and killed a woman in an Arizona city earlier this year, police records show.

Included in a massive Tempe Police Department report this week were details about the March 18 fatal crash. The 318-page report found that Rafaela Vasquez, the 44-year-old driver, was frequently looking down and even smiling and laughing at what appears to be a cellphone streaming an episode of the talent search show, The Voice.

In the moments before the test vehicle hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was walking her bicycle across a Tempe, Arizona, road, the test driver, Vasquez, was apparently streaming the TV show through Hulu. A video of the moments before the crash shows Vasquez looking toward her right knee while occasionally looking up and around. Read more...