Uber Self-Driving Car Fatally Strikes Pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in Tempe

On the evening of March 18, 2018, at approximately 9:58 PM, a modified Volvo XC90 operating in autonomous mode as part of Uber's self-driving car testing program struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she crossed Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. Herzberg was walking her bicycle across a four-lane road outside of a designated crosswalk when the collision occurred. The vehicle was traveling at approximately 38 mph in a 35 mph zone at the time of impact. The National Transportation Safety Board's comprehensive investigation, released in November 2019, revealed critical failures in Uber's autonomous driving system. The vehicle's perception system first detected Herzberg approximately 5.6 seconds before impact at a distance of 377 feet, but initially classified her as an "unknown object." As the vehicle approached, the system reclassified her as a "vehicle" and then as a "bicycle," but never correctly identified her as a pedestrian. This misclassification prevented the system from accurately predicting her path across the roadway. Crucially, Uber had disabled the Volvo's factory-installed automatic emergency braking system and had not yet fully implemented its own emergency braking capabilities for the test vehicles. The NTSB found that if either system had been operational, the collision likely could have been avoided or the severity significantly reduced. The safety driver, Rafaela Vasquez, was watching a television show on her phone for much of the trip and looked up just 0.5 seconds before impact, too late to intervene. The incident marked the first recorded fatality involving a fully autonomous vehicle in public operation and triggered widespread scrutiny of self-driving car testing protocols. Uber immediately suspended its autonomous vehicle testing program following the crash. The company reached a confidential settlement with Herzberg's family and daughter. In 2020, Uber was criminally charged but avoided prosecution by entering a deferred prosecution agreement and paying $1.5 million to a victim's compensation fund. Safety driver Vasquez was separately charged with negligent homicide and convicted in 2023, receiving three years of supervised probation. The regulatory aftermath included enhanced oversight of autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona and other states. The NTSB made several safety recommendations, including improved safety risk management programs for automated vehicle testing companies and better integration of collision avoidance systems. Uber eventually sold its self-driving unit to Aurora in 2020, effectively ending its autonomous vehicle development efforts.