无人驾驶撞死人第一案现场视频显示：可能不是无人驾驶车辆的责任

最近Uber在Arizona无人驾驶的车辆撞死人的事情抢占头条了，最新的调查显示可能不是无人驾驶车辆的责任。

根据美国San Francisco Chronicle的报道：

死者推着装满塑料购物袋子的车子突然从道路中间走向汽车道，然后被自动驾驶车辆撞倒。

当然虽然说自动驾驶，其实自动驾驶车副驾驶上是有一个司机的，他负责在特殊情况下托管车子。

据司机描述死者像光线一样闪进他们前面，第一声警报声几乎就是碰撞声音。

根据警察局的初步调查，周日晚上自动驾驶车辆已38mph的速度在35mph的车道上行使并没有意图刹车（美国法律应该是一般超过5mph算超速).

根据警察描述：当时自动驾驶车辆配备了至少两台摄像机，以及车内还有驾驶员。从汽车拍摄视频来看，死者从阴影中进入车道的行为在任何模式（人驾驶还是自动驾驶）下都难以发生碰撞，但是当前警察尚未公布视频。

所以，初步判断Uber在这起事故中可能没有过错，如果定Uber有责任的话，那么可能开启了一个合法的泥潭。然而警方不排除向备用车手提出控告的可能，但是如果自动驾驶车辆被发现了有问题的话，这将会是另外再说。

所以根据这个报道自动驾驶技术应该不是造成此类问题的主要原因，但这个事情会是自动驾驶历史上里程碑，自动驾驶需要更多思考的是立法以及交通道路配套的方面。

附录为San Francisco Chronicle原文：

Pushing a bicycle laden with plastic shopping bags, a woman abruptly walked from a center median into a lane of traffic and was struck by a self-driving Uber operating in autonomous mode.

“The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them,” said Sylvia Moir, police chief in Tempe, Ariz., the location for the first pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car. “His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision.”

Traveling at 38 mph in a 35 mph zone on Sunday night, the Uber self-driving car made no attempt to brake, according to the Police Department’s preliminary investigation.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, was unconscious at the scene and later died of her injuries at a local hospital. At a news conference, Tempe police said it appears that she may have been homeless.

The self-driving Volvo SUV was outfitted with at least two video cameras, one facing forward toward the street, the other focused inside the car on the driver, Moir said in an interview.

From viewing the videos, “it’s very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway,” Moir said. The police have not released the videos.

The incident happened within perhaps 100 yards of a crosswalk, Moir said. “It is dangerous to cross roadways in the evening hour when well-illuminated, managed crosswalks are available,” she said.

The Tempe police will collaborate with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in probing the accident.

While hundreds of autonomous cars operate in Arizona, Moir said she was aware of only one other accident, which occurred a year ago. It also involved an Uber in self-driving mode, which was flipped onto its side. But authorities determined that the other car involved was at fault for failing to yield and cited its driver for a moving violation.

“I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident, either,” Moir said.

However, if Uber is found responsible, that could open a legal quagmire.

“I won’t rule out the potential to file charges against the (backup driver) in the Uber vehicle,” Moir said.

But if the robot car itself were found at fault? “This is really new ground we’re venturing into,” she said.

— Carolyn Said