UBER BAD

Driver Charged With Negligent Homicide for Arizona Self-Driving Car Fatality

The backup driver was watching ‘The Voice’ on her phone before the car crashed into and killed a woman.

The driver behind the wheel during a fatal 2018 crash involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars has been charged with negligent homicide, the Maricopa County Attorney announced Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the safety driver, Rafaela Vasquez, had been watching the television show The Voice on her phone instead of watching the road just before the autonomous vehicle car crashed into and killed Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona in August 2018. Vasquez pleaded not guilty in a Tuesday hearing. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey banned Uber’s tests of self-driving cars from the state’s roads following the incident, though prosecutors declined to file charges against the company. Vasquez’s trial is scheduled to begin February 11, 2021.