Uber has determined that a fatal accident in Arizona involving one of its self-driving prototypes was likely caused by “a problem with the software that decides how the car should react to objects it detects,” sources told the The Information. The car reportedly detected the pedestrian, but decided it didn’t need to brake for her. That’s likely because the vehicle’s software is tuned to not react to “false positives”—and one source told the outlet that the “tuning went too far, and the car didn’t react fast enough.” The driver behind the wheel of the vehicle–who is tasked with preventing accidents like the one that killed Elaine Herzberg—reportedly took his eyes off the road “seconds” before Herzberg was hit at 40 mph. The driver is still employed by Uber, which settled with the family over Herzberg’s death.
