Penalty Given to Driver in World’s First Fatal Autonomous Driving Accident Announced

Although cars with autonomous driving systems have not become widespread yet, they have been used for years in countries such as the USA. In fact, UBER, one of the popular transportation platforms, has been providing transportation services with autonomous vehicles for years in the USA. However, cars with autonomous driving systems can also be involved in traffic accidents from time to time, causing injury or death to people.

Here, the first fatal accident involving a car with an autonomous driving system occurred in 2018 in Arizona, USA. A woman named Rafaela Vasquez, who rented one of UBER’s autonomous driving vehicles, hit a cyclist and caused her death. The lawsuit that has been going on for years regarding this incident has finally been concluded.

It was determined that there was no problem in the autonomous driving system.

*An image of the traffic accident.

According to the information obtained, the autonomous driving system used by Uber detected a pedestrian ahead 5.6 seconds before the accident. However, he could not determine whether it was a bicycle or not. Moreover, there was no warning in the system about whether the cyclist was on the road or not. So the system used in Uber was not working that well. On the other hand; The automatic braking feature of the autonomous driving system was also turned off. UBER relied on the driver for braking.

UBER was acquitted by a court decision in 2020. It was concluded that the company and the autonomous driving system were not at fault in the accident. But the process is not over for the woman who hired UBER. The case, which has been debated for years as to whether it was an accident or murder, has finally come to a conclusion. The fact that the driver named Rafaela Vasquez was watching a video on his phone during the accident caused the incident to be evaluated as murder. However, the driver will not be penalized.

The driver, who accepted the accusations and agreed with the court, took advantage of the probation law!

*Image of Rafaela Vasquez watching a video on her phone just before the accident.

In the last hearing held in the past days, it was decided that Vasquez, who accepted that he endangered the traffic and went to deal with the court, should benefit from the probation law. The woman, who will be kept under surveillance for 3 years, will be able to return to her old life after this process.