WASHINGTON: A US investigation into the death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving Uber car faulted driver inattention along with “inadequate” safety measures implemented by the company.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the “immediate cause” of the March 2018 accident was that the driver — able to take the controls from the autonomous car at any time — “was visually distracted throughout the trip by a personal cell phone.”

The report released late Tuesday also concluded that Uber’s “inadequate safety risk assessment procedures, ineffective oversight of the vehicle operators and a lack of adequate mechanisms for addressing operators’ automation complacency” were additional factors.

The pedestrian killed in Tempe, Arizona was dressed in dark clothing and was pushing a bicycle that had no side reflectors when she crossed an unlighted section of roadway at night.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2019