June 22, 2018—Police in Tempe, Ariz., said evidence showed the driver behind the self-driving Uber was distracted and streaming a show on her phone before a fatal accident in March, reported Reuters.
According to the report, the crash was "entirely avoidable."
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, glancing up just a half second before the car hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was crossing the street at night, according to Reuters.
The Uber car was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash, but Uber, like other self-driving car developers, requires a back-up driver in the car to intervene when the autonomous system fails or a tricky driving situation occurs.
The National Transportation Safety Board has also been investigating the crash. Uber shut down its autonomous car testing program after the incident.
