---
title: "Self-Driving Uber That Killed Woman Didn’t Know Jaywalkers Exist"
description: "Unprepared Uber In March 2018, a self-driving Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, struck and killed Elaine Herzberg as she walked her bicycle across a street outside of a designated crosswalk. On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board released hundreds of pages of documents related to its investigation into the crash — and according to those […]"
date: "2019-11-06"
modified: "2019-11-06"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/self-driving-uber-killed-woman-jaywalkers"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
  - "Self-Driving Vehicles"
tags:
  - "Autonomous vehicles"
  - "Self-driving cars"
  - "the digest"
  - "Uber"
---

# Self-Driving Uber That Killed Woman Didn’t Know Jaywalkers Exist

![The self-driving Uber that struck and killed an Arizona woman in March 2018 wasn't programmed to know that people could jaywalk.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/uber-self-driving-pedestrians-exist-outside-sidewalks.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Uber\</em\>*

## Unprepared Uber

In March 2018, a self-driving Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, [struck and killed a woman named Elaine Herzberg](<https://futurism.com/ubers-self-driving-car-just-killed-pedestrian>) as she walked her bicycle across a street outside of a designated crosswalk.

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board released hundreds of pages of documents related to its [investigation into the crash](<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-05/self-driving-uber-in-crash-wasn-t-programmed-to-spot-jaywalkers>) — and according to those documents, the Uber's software didn't even know people *could* exist outside of crosswalks, let alone what it should if it encountered a jaywalker.

## Wasting Time

The self-driving Uber noticed Herzberg about [5.6 seconds](<https://www.wired.com/story/ubers-self-driving-car-didnt-know-pedestrians-could-jaywalk/>) before impact, according to the NTSB's investigation.

But because it didn't expect to see a person in the middle of the road outside of crosswalks, it first classified her as "vehicle." It then changed that classification several times before finally settling on "bicycle" — and realizing that a collision was imminent — just 1.2 seconds before impact.

## One Second

At that point, the vehicle could've slammed on its brakes — but it didn't do that until just .2 seconds before impact.

According to the NTSB, that was due to a built-in one-second delay between when the car detects a potential crash and when it does something to avoid it.

The goal of the delay is to avoid [false positives](<https://futurism.com/ubers-self-driving-car-decided-swerve>), but in the case of Herzberg, that extra second might have been enough time for the self-driving Uber — or the safety driver behind its wheel — to take action to prevent her death.

**READ MORE:** [Uber’s Self-Driving Car Didn’t Know Pedestrians Could Jaywalk](<https://www.wired.com/story/ubers-self-driving-car-didnt-know-pedestrians-could-jaywalk/>) \[*Wired*\]

**More on the crash:** *[Uber’s Self-Driving Car Just Killed a Pedestrian](<https://futurism.com/ubers-self-driving-car-just-killed-pedestrian>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)