Video: Uber driver looks down for seconds before fatal crash

Video footage released by Tempe Police.

Police in Tempe, Arizona, have released dash cam footage showing the final seconds before an Uber self-driving vehicle crashed into 49-year-old pedestrian Elaine Herzberg. She died at the hospital shortly afterward.

The accident occurred after dark on Sunday evening. Herzberg was walking with a bicycle across a poorly lit roadway. About 1.4 seconds elapse between the time when Herzberg starts to become visible (initially, only her feet are faintly illuminated) and the video's final frame.

While Herzberg is visible for less than two seconds in the camera footage, she might have become visible earlier to a human driver, since human eyes are better at picking out details in low-light situations. Also, the Uber vehicle was presumably equipped with lidar and radar-sensors that work just as well in the dark as they do in broad daylight.

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