The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the crash. It released a preliminary report last year that suggested the sensors on the Uber vehicle were working correctly, but that emergency braking manoeuvres may not have been enabled.<doc-sep>Prosecutors on Tuesday said that Uber is not criminally responsible for a 2018 fatal car crash in Arizona that involved one of the company's self-driving cars, Reuters reports. The Yavapai County Attorney's Office said "there is no basis for criminal liability for the Uber corporation arising from this matter," in a statement made public. ADVERTISEMENT Prosecutors also said the car's backup driver, Rafaela Vasquez, should be referred to Tempe, Ariz., police for additional investigation. In March of 2018, a self-driving Uber car struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was crossing the street at night. It was the first pedestrian fatality in the nation that involved a self-driving vehicle. Following the crash, Uber suspended all of its self-driving car testing on public roads before laying off 300 of its self-driving vehicle operators in Arizona and permanently shutting down testing there.<doc-sep>Uber Technologies is not criminally liable in a March 2018 crash in Tempe, Arizona, in which one of the company's self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The Yavapai County Attorney said in a letter made public that there was "no basis for criminal liability" for Uber, but that the back-up driver, Rafaela Vasquez, should be referred to the Tempe police for additional investigation. Prosecutors' decision not to pursue criminal charges removes one potential headache for the ride-hailing company as the company's executives try to resolve a long list of federal investigations, lawsuits and other legal risks ahead of a hotly anticipated initial public offering this year. The crash involved a Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicle that Uber was using to test self-driving technology. The fatal accident was a setback from which the company has yet to recover; its autonomous vehicle testing remains dramatically reduced. The accident was also a blow to the entire autonomous vehicle industry and led other companies to temporarily halt their testing. Scrutiny has mounted on the nascent technology, which presents fatal risks but has minimal oversight from regulators. Vasquez, the Uber back-up driver, could face charges of vehicular manslaughter, according to a police report in June. Vasquez has not previously commented and could not immediately be reached on Tuesday. Based on a video taken inside the car, records collected from online entertainment streaming service Hulu and other evidence, police said last year that Vasquez was looking down and streaming an episode of the television show "The Voice" on a phone until about the time of the crash. The driver looked up a half-second before hitting Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died from her injuries. Police called the incident "entirely avoidable." Yavapai County Attorney's Office, which examined the case at the request of Maricopa County where the accident occurred, did not explain the reasoning for not finding criminal liability against Uber. Yavapai sent the case back to Maricopa, calling for further expert analysis of the video to determine what the driver should have seen that night. An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment on the letter. The National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are still investigating. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office did not immediately comment on Tuesday. Uber in December filed confidentially for an initial public offering and is expected to seek a valuation of up to $120 billion. Its self-driving program, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars and does not generate revenue yet, is likely to come under scrutiny by investors. The ride-hailing company, which last year lost about $3.3 billion, is betting on a transition to self-driving cars to eliminate the need to pay drivers. At an autonomous vehicles conference in Silicon Valley last week, industry leaders lamented the loss of confidence from the public, regulators and investors that lingers a year after the Uber crash. There is no consensus on safety standards for the industry. In March 2018, authorities in Arizona suspended Uber's ability to test its self-driving cars. Uber also voluntarily halted its entire autonomous car testing program and left Arizona. In December, Uber resumed limited self-driving car testing in Pittsburgh, restricting the cars to a small loop they can drive only in good weather. The company is now testing with two people in the front seat and more strictly monitors safety drivers. The company also said last year it made improvements to the vehicles' self-driving software. Uber has not resumed testing in San Francisco or Toronto, where it previously had programs. (Reporting by David Shepardson. Additional reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco and David Schwartz in Phoenix; Editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia Osterman)<doc-sep>Uber will not be held criminally liable in the fatal crash last year in Tempe, Arizona, in which a self-driving vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian, a county prosecutor announced Tuesday. Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said Uber won't face criminal charges in the March 2018 crash — believed to be the first fatality in the U.S. involving a self-driving vehicle. Polk said her office concluded that video of the crash likely didn’t accurately depict the collision and recommended that Tempe police seek more evidence. DRIVER IN FATAL SELF-DRIVING UBER CRASH WAS WATCHING 'THE VOICE,' INVESTIGATORS SAY It’s not known whether prosecutors are considering charges against the driver. Dashcam video released by the Tempe Police Department last year showed an interior view of Uber backup driver Rafael Vasquez in the moments before the crash. She told investigators she wasn't using her phone before the crash, but the video shows her looking down inside the car. Moments later, exterior footage shows the moments leading up to a pedestrian being hit by the Uber Volvo XC-90. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was pushing a bicycle across a street in the darkness when she was fatally struck by the vehicle, which was moving at about 44 miles per hour. Authorities revealed in June that Vasquez had been watching "The Voice" prior to the crash. Investigators concluded that if Vasquez wasn't distracted, the crash wouldn't have occurred. SELF-DRIVING UBERS BACK ON THE STREET... WITH DRIVERS Vasquez told authorities that Herzberg "came out of nowhere," and didn't see her prior to the collision. However, officers calculated that had Vasquez been paying attention, she could have reacted 143 feet before impact, and could have brought the SUV to a stop about 42.6 feet before hitting Herzberg. Review of the video reportedly revealed that Vasquez peered down roughly 200 times over the course of 11.8 miles. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in May said the Uber's autonomous driving system spotted Herzberg before hitting her but didn't stop because the system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled "to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior." Instead of the system, Uber relies on the human backup driver to intervene. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Uber pulled its self-driving cars out of Arizona the day before the NTSB report was released, eliminating the jobs of about 300 people who served as backup drivers and performed other jobs connected to the vehicles. The company had suspended testing of its self-driving vehicles in Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto while regulators investigated the cause of the crash. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey prohibited Uber from continuing its tests of self-driving cars after Herzberg was killed. Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
A county attorney cleared Uber of criminal liability in a self-driving car crash that killed a woman last year. Uber’s test driver could still face charges of vehicular manslaughter. Uber resumed its on-street self-driving test program in Pittsburgh in late December. A county attorney in Arizona has cleared Uber of criminal liability in the death of a Tempe woman during one of the company’s self-driving car tests last year. In a letter on Monday, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Sullivan Polk stated that her office found “no basis for criminal liability” for Uber in the death of Elaine Herzberg, who was struck and killed by a self-driving Uber car while walking her bicycle across a Tempe street in March 2018. Polk also recommended that Tempe police get an “expert analysis” of crash footage to determine whether Uber’s test driver, Rafaela Vasquez, could have acted differently to prevent the deadly crash. Video footage from inside the car shows that Vasquez, who could still face charges of vehicular manslaughter, was looking down until moments—investigators later determined about half a second—before impact. Tempe police found that Vasquez was streaming a TV show on her phone at the time of the collision and didn’t hit the brakes until less than a second afterward. In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board found that while the car’s sensors detected Herzberg six seconds before the crash, they had trouble classifying her and deciding on a course of action. Uber had also disabled the car’s emergency brakes to prevent “erratic vehicle behavior,” instead relying on human test drivers to take over as needed. The car struck Herzberg at nearly 40 mph. The 49-year-old later died of her injuries, becoming the first known pedestrian death caused by a self-driving car. Uber settled with Herzberg’s family a few weeks later for an undisclosed amount. Pilot models of self-driving Uber cars in Pittsburgh in 2016. Although Uber suspended its self-driving test program after the Tempe crash, in resumed on Pittsburgh roads in late December 2018. AFP Getty Images Five days before the crash, a manager with Uber’s test team warned executives about his concerns with the company’s self-driving software and what he described as inadequate training for test drivers. In an email, manager Robbie Miller noted the program’s high crash rate and management’s failure to discipline test drivers who performed poorly on the job. Although the crash took place in Maricopa County, Arizona, the matter had been referred to the attorney’s office in adjacent Yavapai County due to “a prior working relationship between the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and Uber,” according to Polk’s letter. The case will now return to the Maricopa County Attorney to determine whether to bring criminal charges against Vasquez. In the crash’s aftermath, Uber suspended its on-road self-driving test program in all states, but resumed on public roads in Pittsburgh after getting clearance from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in December. The company’s self-driving fleet had been operating on the streets in Arizona since February 2017, after California banned the cars over safety concerns. Matt Bevilacqua News Editor, Bicycling Matt is a reporter, writer, and editor who has covered bicycling since 2014, when he cofounded a small bike magazine called SPOKE in Philadelphia.