Don’t Let the First Pedestrian Death by Uber's Self-Driving Car Freak You Out
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbxjyv/autonomous-uber-kills-pedestrian-in-tempe-arizona-self-driving-car
Nearly 6,000 pedestrians were hit and killed by cars in the US last year—an increase of nine percent from the previous year, and the highest number since 1990, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Pedestrians aren’t alone; drivers, motorcyclists, and cyclists are all being killed with greater frequency on American roads. In 2016, 37,461 people died in traffic accidents in the US.
Meanwhile, a pedestrian in Arizona was killed by an Uber-owned vehicle in autonomous mode over the weekend, and we're willing to burn the whole driverless-car thing down. Uber has since pressed pause on its testing efforts in San Francisco, Arizona, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. Special interest groups such as the Teamsters union—which represents professional drivers in North America and which has previously lobbied the government against self-driving vehicles—are using the death of the 49-year-old pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg, to cast a shadow on the technology.