As Pedestrian Deaths Spike, Scientists Scramble for Answers

On Monday, the nascent self-driving vehicle sector reached an unfortunate milestone when, for the first time, a self-driving car killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. This also means robot drivers are becoming more like their human predecessors--who kill thousands of pedestrians every year. And that number has risen dramatically in the past several years. In 2016, cars hit and killed nearly 6,000 pedestrians. The Great Recession explains some of the fluctuation.