Uber found not criminally liable for fatal self-driving car crash
The Yavapai county attorney says there is ‘no basis’ for criminal liability for Uber, but that the conduct of the back-up driver should be referred for additional investigation
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 conduct of the back-up driver, Rafael Vasquez, should be referred to the Tempe police for additional investigation. Police said in 2018 that Vasquez was streaming a television show on a phone until about the time of the crash and called the incident “entirely avoidable”. An Uber spokesperson declined to comment on the letter. Vasquez could face charges of vehicular manslaughter, according to a police report last June. Vasquez has not previously commented and could not immediately be reached on Tuesday. The Maricopa county attorney, whose jurisdiction includes Tempe, referred the case in 2018 to another office because of a conflict. In Tuesday’s letter Yavapai county ...
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