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"Introduction" [2019] ELECD 1025; in Chinen, Mark (ed), "Law and Autonomous Machines" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) viii

Book Title: Law and Autonomous Machines

Editor(s): Chinen, Mark

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section Title: Introduction

Number of pages: 7

Extract:

Introduction
The inevitable occurred on March 18, 2018, when an autonomous vehicle
owned and operated by Uber Technologies, Inc. struck and killed Elaine
Herzberg as she crossed a street with her bicycle. Her friends describe her as
just emerging from homelessness. A human driver was in the sports utility
vehicle, but the SUV was in autonomous mode when it struck Herzberg.1
Video footage indicates it was night and Herzberg was not in a crosswalk.
The footage also suggests the car did not apply brakes or otherwise attempt to
avoid hitting Herzberg. A preliminary report of the National Transportation
Safety Board revealed that the vehicle's self-driving system first detected
Herzberg about six seconds before impact. As the car and Herzberg converged,
the autonomous system classified Herzberg as an unknown object, next as
a vehicle and then as a bicycle. Just 1.3 seconds before impact, the system
concluded that an emergency braking maneuver was required; however, such
maneuvers were not enabled while the vehicle was under computer control.
This was to prevent "erratic vehicle behavior." The system was not designed
to alert the human operator.2
Others had died in accidents involving self-driving cars before this incident,3
but this was the first time someone with no voluntary connection to an auton-
omous vehicle had been killed by one. Immediately, discussions arose in the
comments sections of news reports and via Twitter posts about who should be
held responsible for Herzberg's death. Was it the car? ...