Developing driverless cars has been AI's greatest test. Today we can say it has failed miserably, despite the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars in attempts to produce a viable commercial vehicle. Moreover, the recent withdrawal from the market of a leading provider of robotaxis in the US, coupled with the introduction of strict legislation in the UK, suggests that the developers' hopes of monetising the concept are even more remote than before. The very future of the idea hangs in the balance. The attempt to produce a driverless car started in the mid-00s with a challenge by a US defence research agency, offering a $1m prize for whoever could create one capable of making a very limited journey in the desert. This quickly turned into a race between various tech and car companies (OEMs, as they are now known – original equipment manufacturers) to produce what they thought would be the ultimate cash cow: a car that could operate in all conditions without a driver.

The backup Uber driver for a self-driving vehicle that killed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in 2018 pleaded guilty Friday to endangerment in the first deadly crash involving a fully autonomous car. Arizona state judge David Garbarino, who accepted the plea agreement, sentenced Rafaela Vasquez to three years of supervised probation for the crash that killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. Vasquez, 49, told police that Herzberg "came out of nowhere" and that she didn't see Herzberg before hitting her on a darkened Tempe street on 18 March 2018. Vasquez had been charged with felony negligent homicide. The charge to which she pleaded could be reclassified as a misdemeanor if she completes probation. Authorities say Vasquez was streaming the television show The Voice on a phone and looking down in the moments before Uber's Volvo XC-90 SUV struck Herzberg, who was crossing with her bicycle.

Waymo starts limited trial of self-driving taxi service. The Uber driver behind the wheel during the first reported fatal collision involving a fully autonomous vehicle pleaded guilty to endangerment on Friday, and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation. In March of 2018, Elaine Herzberg was killed while walking her bike outside the lines of a crosswalk in suburban Phoenix. Driver Rafaela Vasquez, 49, was streaming a show on her phone and not watching the road at the moment of the fatal accident, authorities said. Video released by the Tempe Police Department from inside the Vasquez's Volvo XC90 SUV shows her looking down at the moment of the crash, during which the vehicle was moving at 40 miles per hour.

In artificial intelligence (AI), the "alignment problem" refers to the challenges caused by the fact that machines simply do not have the same values as us. In fact, when it comes to values, then at a fundamental level, machines don't really get much more sophisticated than understanding that 1 is different from 0. As a society, we are now at a point where we are starting to allow machines to make decisions for us. So how can we expect them to understand that, for example, they should do this in a way that doesn't involve prejudice towards people of a certain race, gender, or sexuality? Or that the pursuit of speed, or efficiency, or profit, has to be done in a way that respects the ultimate sanctity of human life? Theoretically, if you tell a self-driving car to navigate from point A to point B, it could just smash its way to its destination, regardless of the cars, pedestrians, or buildings it destroys on its way.

When an Uber autonomous test car killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona, in March 2018, it sent alarm bells around the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Walking her bicycle, Herzberg had strayed on to the road, resulting in a fatal collision with the vehicle. While there were other contributory factors in the accident, the incident highlighted a key flaw in the algorithm powering the car. It was not trained to cope with jay-walkers nor could it recognise whether it was dealing with a bicycle or a pedestrian. Confused, it ultimately failed to default quickly to the safety option of slowing the vehicle and potentially saving Herzberg's life.

The nasal test for Covid-19 requires a nurse to insert a 6-inch long swab deep into your nasal passages. Now, imagine that your nurse is a robot. A few months ago, a nasal swab robot was developed by Brain Navi, a Taiwanese startup. The company's intent was to minimize the spread of infection by reducing staff-patient contact. So, here we have a robot autonomously navigating the probe down into your throat, and carefully avoiding channels that lead up to the eyes.

Autonomous vehicle design involves an almost incomprehensible combination of engineering tasks including sensor fusion, path planning, and predictive modeling of human behavior. But despite the best efforts to consider all possible real world outcomes, things can go awry. More than two and a half years ago, in Tempe, Arizona, an Uber "self-driving" car crashed into pedestrian Elaine Herzberg, killing her. In mid-September, the safety driver behind the wheel of that car, Rafaela Vasquez, was charged with negligent homicide. Uber's test vehicle was driving 39 mph when it struck Herzberg. Uber's sensors detected her six seconds before impact but determined that the object sensed was a false positive.

The nasal test for Covid-19 requires a nurse to insert a 6-inch long swab deep into your nasal passages. Now, imagine that your nurse is a robot. A few months ago, a nasal swab robot was developed by Brain Navi, a Taiwanese startup. The company's intent was to minimize the spread of infection by reducing staff-patient contact. So, here we have a robot autonomously navigating the probe down into your throat, and carefully avoiding channels that lead up to the eyes.

The nasal test for Covid-19 requires a nurse to insert a 6-inch long swab deep into your nasal passages. Now, imagine that your nurse is a robot. A few months ago, a nasal swab robot was developed by Brain Navi, a Taiwanese startup. The company's intent was to minimize the spread of infection by reducing staff-patient contact. So, here we have a robot autonomously navigating the probe down into your throat, and carefully avoiding channels that lead up to the eyes.

The safety driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber that struck and killed a woman in 2018 has been charged with a crime. Prosecutors in Maricopa County, Arizona, Tuesday said the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, has been indicted for criminal negligence. But Uber, her employer and the company that built the automated system involved in the fatal collision, won't face charges. The attorney for neighboring Yavapai County declined to prosecute Uber last year, writing in a letter that the office found "no basis for criminal liability." Yavapai County attorney Sheila Polk declined to elaborate on her decision.