SELF-DRIVING UBER CAR KILLS PEDESTRIAN

A woman in Tempe, Arizona, was killed by a self-driving car operated by Uber, in what appears to be the first known death of a pedestrian struck by an autonomous vehicle on a public road. The Uber vehicle was in autonomous mode with a human safety driver at the wheel when it struck 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. She was walking her bicycle across the street. After the incident, which happened at 10 p.m. local time on Sunday, she was transferred to a nearby hospital, where she died from her injuries. Herzberg was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk, according to Tempe police. Autonomous cars are expected to ultimately be safer than human drivers, because they don’t get distracted and always observe traffic laws. However, researchers working on the technology have struggled with how to teach the autonomous systems to adjust for unpredictable human driving or behavior. Uber said it had suspended testing of its self-driving cars in Tempe, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.
* Tempe, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto – now might be a good time to head for the hills. And don’t take an Uber.
* That human safety driver needs a little refresher course.
* So, isn’t this the fault of the guys who are programming these cars? Aren’t they now guilty of murder, or at least manslaughter?
* Meanwhile, the car is thinking, “And so it begins …”
* If these cars start working together, we’re screwed.