Prosecutors in the case against Uber for the March 2018 death of a pedestrian due to a self-driving car in Tempe, Arizona, said that the company is not criminally liable.
The Yavapai County Attorney’s office, which took the case, sent a letter to Maricopa County, where the accident happened, stating the office had reviewed the evidence and found Uber was not criminally responsible for the death of the pedestrian. The office then said it was sending the matter back to Maricopa County in order for further review of criminal charges.
The Yavapai County Attorney concluded that the video of the collision did not accurately depict the events that occurred and recommended getting further evidence from the Tempe Police Department. The video that is referenced shows the back-up driver of the Uber watching television on a phone while the car was in autonomous mode at the time of the accident. The attorney said the video should be given to an expert for analysis to closely match what the back-up driver was doing and should have been doing at the time.
After the accident, Uber came under intense scrutiny and for the better part of 2018 suspended its self-driving pilot projects, laid off about 100 safety drivers and scuttled its plans for self-driving trucks.
It wasn’t just Uber that was impacted by the accident as other companies temporarily suspended their self-driving projects, the U.S. government got involved in order to push for greater regulations for safety before autonomous vehicles get on the road and the accident helped contribute to a decline in consumer acceptance of self-driving cars due to safety concerns.
According to Reuters, the back-up driver who was in the Uber car at the time of the accident is not necessarily exempt from criminal charges yet and the National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are still investigating the crash.
