Uber safety driver was watching The Voice before self-driving car killed pedestrian

A FATAL crash involving a self-driving Uber vehicle was “entirely avoidable”, police in the US said, if the human safety driver behind the wheel had been paying attention.

Police in Tempe, Arizona, said evidence showed the safety driver was distracted and streaming a television show on her phone right up until about the time of the accident in March.

A 318-page report from the Tempe police department, released late on Thursday in response to a public records request, said the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, repeatedly looked down and not at the road. She only glanced up half a second before the car hit 49-yearold Elaine Herzberg, who was crossing the street at night.

Police said Ms Vasquez could face charges of vehicular manslaughter and that, based on testing, the crash was “deemed entirely avoidable” had she been paying attention.

Police obtained records from Hulu, the streaming service, which showed Ms Vasquez’s account was playing The Voice on the night of the crash for about 42 minutes, ending at 9.59pm, which “coincides with the approximate time of the collision,” the report says.

Police submitted their findings to county prosecutors, who will decide whether Ms Vasquez will be charged.

The Uber car was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash, but Uber, like other self-driving car developers, requires a backup driver in the car to intervene when the system fails or in the event of a tricky driving situation.

The crash dealt a major setback to Uber’s efforts to develop self-driving cars.