Accident involving Uber: the sensors worked, the problem in the software and the driver

The other day, more details became known about the accident of the Uber rob-mobile. In mid-March of this year, the car hit a cyclist at full speed, crossing the road in the wrong place. Various opinions were expressed on this case, but now there is official data from the federal agency. The investigation is led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It is an independent US agency that investigates accidents involving vehicles, including civil aviation, car accidents, maritime and rail transport.

Agency specialists found out that the sensors of the robotic mobile detected a pedestrian on the road in time. It happened six seconds before the collision. But the braking system for some reason did not work. In addition, the agency learned that the "spare" drivers, that is, Uber employees sitting in the cabin, must respond to problem situations. And most often it is people who stop robobomies who do not have time to react to a problem situation.

The video, which was published earlier, shows that the Uber employee (yes, this is a woman) hardly looks at the road, dropping her gaze somewhere down. Therefore, she did not have time to react to the pedestrian. She herself says that she followed the parameters of the trip on the screen, but there is an opinion that there is a smartphone downstairs.
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In the preliminary report of the agency, the cause of the accident has not yet been indicated. At this point, the NTSB is working closely with Uber, Volvo, and the Transportation Department of Arizona, USA (it is in this state that the accident happened). According to the results of the official audit, the agency will publish its recommendations, which will allow increasing the safety of ro-mobility on public roads - this applies to both pedestrians and passengers in the cabin.

As for Uber, at the moment it does not conduct test tests of its machines. The process will be resumed only after the investigation of the incident is completed.


The accident itself was the cause of the discussion of specialists and ordinary people about the possibilities of robomobils. In particular, some representatives of the field of vehicle automation consider that it is dangerous to let out roboms on the roads, which are able to drive independently. The fact is that in this case, two unpredictable factors appear at once - non-rolling technology, which becomes the cause of failures and the human factor, which has never been particularly reliable. Robo-mobility drivers overestimate the capabilities of their cars and this causes accidents. So it was, for example, with Tesla, when drivers did not pay attention to the road, as happened with Uber.

The agency has published interesting information that is related to the features of the emergency braking system. It turns out that when the Uber autopilot is turned on, the automatic emergency braking system is turned off. This is done to reduce the number of cases of "incorrect behavior of the car." It turns out that in the case of autonomous driving, if an obstacle arises on the road, then the driver should be slowed down by a person, which in the case of a cyclist on the road did not happen.

But the worst thing is that the system does not warn the driver about the obstacles. For some reason, there is no warning system, in any case, the report of the agency says so. A paradoxical situation arises - the operator in the cabin becomes accustomed to the fact that everything is controlled by the mobile and forgets that he, the person will need to slow down. It is worth noting here once again that what has been said refers specifically to the emergency braking system, and not to “work with brakes” during normal driving on the road. The car will stop at traffic lights, but it will not stop in front of the animal running across the road or the person.



There is another problem with the Uber robot. The system has detected a foreign object on the road, yes. But at first she identified the woman walking next to her bicycle as an unknown object, then as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle. Only 1.3 seconds before the collision, the Uber system determined that an emergency braking system was needed.

The operator of the robomobile noticed the object too about a second before the collision, hitting the brakes. But it was already too late - the car traveling at a speed of about 70 km / h did not have time to stop and knocked down the bike and its owner. For the object detection system on the road, the problem was that the victim wore dark clothes, and the bicycle did not have reflectors. That is, it was not visible from afar. By the way, medical reports indicate the presence of traces of methamphetamines and marijuana in the blood.

Uber's own investigation revealed that the system did not respond in time. Robo-mobiles have now been optimized, so the situation is unlikely to happen again. But the company is in no hurry to resume tests, and it is hardly possible for now.