Uber promises its new system is smarter and would identify a jaywalking pedestrian. A year and a half since the crash in Tempe, Arizona, that left a pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg, dead and Uber in the spotlight over its self-driving car program, we're still learning more about why the wreck occurred and how investigators plan to shore up autonomous vehicle safety. The latest comes from Bloomberg, which reported Tuesday on hundreds of new documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board. The safety body found Uber's self-driving car prototype did not feature any sort of system to identify pedestrians outside of a crosswalk. Translation: There's no way the Uber autonomous car could see jaywalkers.

Raw video: Cameras mounted inside the car catches the fatal moment. Authorites are investigating the cause of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that an Uber self-driving car that struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona in 2018 was unable to detect jaywalkers. Elaine Herzberg died in March 2018 when an Uber vehicle struck her as she walked across a darkened street in Tempe. The board said the Uber autonomous driving system spotted Herzberg before hitting her but a system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been automatically disabled.

Jurisdictions might be on-the-hook for their self-driving car laws that allow autonomous cars and for which might get into mishaps or crashes. Florida just passed a law that widens the door for self-driving driverless cars to roam their public roadways and do so without any human back-up driver involved. Some see dangers afoot, others see progress and excitement. Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, declared that by approving the new bill it showed that "Florida officially has an open-door policy to autonomous vehicle companies." There are now 29 states that have various driverless laws on their books, per the National Conference of State Legislatures: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, plus Washington, D.C. Here's a question that some politicians and regulators are silently grappling with, albeit some think that they have the unarguably "right" answer and thusly have no need to lose sleep over the matter: Should states, counties, cities and townships be eagerly courting self-driving autonomous cars onto their public roadways, or should those jurisdictions be neutral about inviting them into their locales, or should they be highly questioning and require "proof until proven safe" before letting even one such autonomous car onto their turf?

One of the greatest ironies in this still-nascent era of self-driving cars is that humans are the backup safety drivers for these autonomous systems, while the systems themselves are supposed to replace human drivers and all our follies. Earlier this week, a preliminary report from the NTSB indicated that the Uber self-driving car that killed a woman in Arizona earlier this year, did in fact "see" the woman in the seconds before the crash occurred. Transportation writer Aarian Marshall and editor Alex Davies join the Gadget Lab podcast this week to discuss the issues that surround "software that's not yet ready to replace humans, and humans that are ill-equipped to keep their would-be replacements from doing harm." And of course, we couldn't have a conversation about the future of transportation without talking about Elon Musk. Also, Alex writes about the follies of humans act as backup safety drivers, while Aarian lays out California's heavy-handed plans to regulate autonomous vehicles.

An autonomous Uber car spotted a pedestrian about six seconds before fatally hitting her but did not stop because the system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled, US federal investigators said. In a preliminary report on the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while Uber's cars are under computer control'to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior'. Instead, Uber relies on a human backup driver to intervene but the system is not designed to alert the driver. Investigators examine a driverless Uber SUV that fatally struck a woman in Arizona. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while Uber's cars are under computer control In the crash in March, the driver Rafaela Vasquez began steering less than a second before impact but did not brake until less than a second after impact, according to the preliminary report, which does not determine fault.

A vehicle drives by the spot where an Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian earlier this year in Tempe, Ariz. The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report Thursday on the collision. A vehicle drives by the spot where an Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian earlier this year in Tempe, Ariz. The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report Thursday on the collision. The Uber self-driving vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian two months ago in Tempe, Ariz., took note of the victim with its sensors, but its software did not engage the car's brakes to prevent the collision, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

An autonomous Uber car spotted a pedestrian about six seconds before fatally hitting her but did not stop because the system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled, US federal investigators said. In a preliminary report on the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said emergency braking manoeuvres are not enabled while Uber's cars are under computer control "to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behaviour". Instead, Uber relies on a human backup driver to intervene but the system is not designed to alert the driver. In the crash in March, the driver began steering less than a second before impact but did not brake until less than a second after impact, according to the preliminary report, which does not determine fault. A video of the crash showed the driver looking down just before the vehicle struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona.

Uber is confirming that one of its self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in the Phoenix metro area Sunday night. Company officials say Uber is halting all of its self-driving testing as of Monday as the investigation continues. A handout photo from Uber shows one of its Volvo self-driving SUVs in a desert setting. One of the company's vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz., Sunday night. The death of an Arizona pedestrian by a self-driving car has resurfaced concerns that this futuristic technology is too risky to test in public places.

A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. Tempe police said the woman was walking outside the pedestrian crossing when she was struck by a self-driving car in autonomous mode. There was a vehicle operator in the car at the time of the crash, but no passengers. The 49-year-old woman was taken to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries. This is the first reported pedestrian fatality due to a self-driving vehicle.

A woman died of her injuries after being struck by a Uber self-driving vehicle in Arizona, police say, prompting the ride-hailing company to suspend ts autonomous-vehicle programme across the US and Canada. Monday's accident in Tempe, Arizona, marked the first fatality from a self-driving vehicle, which are still being tested around the globe, and could derail efforts to fast-track the introduction of the new technology in the US. At the time of the accident, which occurred on the night between Sunday and Monday, the car was in autonomous mode with a vehicle operator behind the wheel, Tempe police said. "The vehicle was travelling northbound ... when a female walking outside of the crosswalk crossed the road from west to east when she was struck by the Uber vehicle," police said in a statement. A spokesman for Uber Technologies Inc said the company was suspending its North American tests.