{"id":1985776,"date":"2023-07-29T12:20:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T16:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/woman-in-self-driving-vehicle-pleads-guilty-after-first-death-by-fully-autonomous-car\/"},"modified":"2023-07-29T12:22:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T16:22:58","slug":"woman-in-self-driving-vehicle-pleads-guilty-after-first-death-by-fully-autonomous-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/woman-in-self-driving-vehicle-pleads-guilty-after-first-death-by-fully-autonomous-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman in self-driving car pleads guilty for first death caused by fully autonomous vehicle."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwoman-in-self-driving-vehicle-pleads-guilty-after-first-death-by-fully-autonomous-car%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1985776&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Backup \u200bUber Driver Pleads\u200c Guilty in First Fatal Collision Involving\u200d Self-Driving\u200d Car<\/h2>\n<p>The backup Uber\u200c driver for a self-driving vehicle that tragically killed a pedestrian in suburban\u200c Phoenix in 2018 has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-president-trump-to-pardon-gen-michael-flynn-per-report\/\" title=\"BREAKING: President Trump to Pardon Gen. Michael Flynn, Per Report\">pleaded guilty<\/a> to endangerment. \u2064This marks the first fatal collision involving a \u2064<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/autonomous-vehicle-industry-admits-true-self-driving-cars-may-be-impossible\/\" title=\"Autonomous Vehicle Industry Admits True Self-Driving Cars May Be Impossible\">fully autonomous car<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Garbarino, who accepted the plea agreement, has\u200b sentenced Rafaela Vasquez, 49, \u2064to three\u2064 years of\u200c supervised probation\u200c for\u200b the crash that took the life of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg.<\/p>\n<p>Vasquez told police that Herzberg\u2062 &#8220;came out of nowhere&#8221; and that she didn&#8217;t \u2063see Herzberg before the\u200d collision on a darkened Tempe street on March 18, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Vasquez had\u200d initially been charged with negligent homicide, a felony. However, she pleaded \u200cguilty to\u2064 an undesignated felony, which could\u200b be reclassified as a misdemeanor upon completion of her\u200d probation.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities revealed that Vasquez was streaming the television show\u200d &#8220;The Voice&#8221; on a phone and looking\u200d down moments before Uber&#8217;s Volvo\u200c XC-90 SUV\u2062 struck \u2063Herzberg,\u200d who was crossing the street \u200dwith her bicycle.<\/p>\n<p>Vasquez&#8217;s attorneys argued that she was looking at a\u2063 messaging\u200c program used\u200b by Uber employees on a work cellphone\u2064 that\u2063 was on her right knee. They clarified \u2064that the TV show was playing \u2064on\u2062 her personal\u200c cellphone, which was on the passenger seat.<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorney Albert Jaynes Morrison pointed out that Uber should share some blame for the collision, \u200cas he requested the judge to sentence Vasquez to six months of unsupervised probation. He argued that Uber failed \u2063to take necessary steps, \u200dsuch as having a second employee in the \u2063vehicle, and that the\u200d collision was inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors declined to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aaron-donalds-attorney-claims-the-rams-star-was-trying-to-protect-a-victim-in-the-altercation\/\" title=\"Aaron Donald\u2019s Attorney Claims The Rams Star Was Trying To Protect A Victim In The Altercation\">file criminal charges<\/a> against Uber \u2063as a corporation. The National\u2064 Transportation Safety \u2064Board concluded that\u2062 Vasquez&#8217;s failure to monitor the road was the primary cause of the crash.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The defendant had one job\u200c and one job only,&#8221; prosecutor Tiffany Brady emphasized. &#8220;And that \u2064was to keep her eyes on the road.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Contributing Factors and Industry Impact<\/h3>\n<p>The NTSB\u200c cited several contributing factors to the\u2063 collision, including Uber&#8217;s inadequate safety procedures and \u2063ineffective \u200doversight of \u200bits drivers, Herzberg&#8217;s decision to cross the \u2064street outside of a crosswalk, and the Arizona Department of Transportation&#8217;s insufficient oversight\u200b of autonomous\u200d vehicle testing.<\/p>\n<p>The board also \u2062determined that Uber&#8217;s\u200b deactivation of its \u2063automatic emergency braking system \u2062increased the risks associated with testing automated vehicles on public\u2063 roads. Instead of relying on the system,\u200b Uber relied on the human backup driver\u200d to intervene.<\/p>\n<p>This was not the first crash involving an Uber autonomous test vehicle. In March 2017, an Uber SUV flipped onto its side in Tempe after colliding with another vehicle. Fortunately, no serious injuries were reported, and the driver\u2064 of the \u200bother car received a citation.<\/p>\n<p>While Herzberg&#8217;s death was the first involving \u200dan autonomous \u200btest\u2062 vehicle, it was \u200dnot\u200b the first in a\u200b car\u200d with self-driving features. In 2016, the driver of a Tesla Model S was killed when his car, operating on its Autopilot system, crashed \u200binto a semitrailer in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Following Herzberg&#8217;s death, \u200bUber withdrew its self-driving cars from Arizona, and then-Gov. Doug Ducey prohibited \u2064the company from continuing its tests of self-driving cars.<\/p>\n<p>Vasquez had previously served over four\u200c years \u200din\u200c prison for two felony \u200dconvictions before becoming an Uber driver. These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/woman-in-self-driving-vehicle-pleads-guilty-after-first-death-by-fully-autonomous-car\/\" title=\"Woman in self-driving car pleads guilty for first death caused by fully autonomous vehicle.\">convictions included making false statements<\/a> when obtaining unemployment benefits and \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/we-find-ourselves-in-a-crisis-oakland-police-chief-criticizes-city-council-after-police-budget-slashed-amid-spike-in-crime\/\" title=\"\u2018We Find Ourselves In A Crisis\u2019: Oakland Police Chief Criticizes City Council After Police Budget Slashed Amid Spike In Crime\">attempted armed robbery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic\">The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our\u2063 editorial standards.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ap-backup-driver-1st-death-fully-autonomous-car-pleads-guilty-endangerment\/\">Woman\u2064 in Self-Driving Vehicle Pleads Guilty After First\u2063 Death \u2064by Fully Autonomous Car<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The backup Uber driver in the 2018 self-driving car accident that resulted in a pedestrian&#8217;s death pleaded guilty to endangerment. Rafaela Vasquez, 49, received three years of supervised probation from Judge David Garbarino, marking the first fatal collision involving a fully autonomous vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":1985777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1985776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1985776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1985777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1985776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1985776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1985776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}