Uber self-driving car ‘spotted pedestrian’

A SELF-DRIVING Uber may have spotted the pedestrian killed in the first fatal crash with a driverless car – but ignored her anyway.

The self-driving car, which ran down Elaine Herzberg, 49, in Phoenix, Arizona, in March, saw the pedestrian as a “false positive”, causing its on-board system to decide to ignore her rather than swerve, according to The Information, a technology news website.

The car’s sensors detected Ms Herzberg, but according to an internal investigation, it had been tuned to ignore obstacles it didn’t deem a risk.

Self-driving cars have been having problems with so-called “false positives” – avoiding small objects that human drivers would normally ignore. The car had been programmed to discard more of these warnings and because of this, it ignored Ms Herzberg crossing the road. The safety driver had been looking away from the road at the moment of the crash.

“We’re cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board. Out of respect for that process, we can’t comment on the specifics of the incident,” an Uber spokesman said.

A full report is expected soon.