Video Surfaces of a Self-Driving Uber’s Fatal Collision With Pedestrian

The dash cam footage from the self-driving Uber that hit and killed a pedestrian has been released, showing the heart-stopping moment from both in and outside of the car.

The Tempe Police released the footage on Wednesday, showing the view from the front of the car. The pedestrian, identified as 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, only appears out of the darkness for a split second before the car is upon her.

The headlights illuminate her and the bicycle she is walking beside, though her dark clothes make her otherwise difficult to see.

“Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is actively investigating the details of this incident that occurred on March 18th,” reads the tweet alongside the tragic video. “We will provide updated information regarding the investigation once it is available.”

The police also included the dash cam footage inside of the car, where a human driver was behind the wheel. Uber has employees manning the self-driving cars just in case of a safety hazard like this, though the video shows the driver looking down and not paying attention until it’s too late.

The driver, 44-year-old Rafaela Vasquez, had reportedly undergone all of the training and background checks associated with the self-driving cars. The car was moving at 40 miles per hour at the time of the crash.

Law enforcement sources told Buzzfeed News that the National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the crash on Tuesday.

“Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is actively investigating the details of this incident. We will provide updated information regarding the investigation once it is available,” police said.

Uber released a statement responding to the video as well.

“The video is disturbing and heartbreaking to watch, and our thoughts continue to be with Elaine’s loved ones,” it said. “Our cars remain grounded, and we’re assisting local, state and federal authorities in any way we can.”

Meanwhile, the replies to the video on Twitter have been predominately in support of the self-driving car, with people discussing whether a human driver could have performed any better under the circumstances.

“The focus of this story should be pedestrian error,” read one tweet. “If it were not a driverless vehicle, the driver would already have been cleared of any charges.”

“I get that a human driver couldn’t avoid this,” wrote another. “However, I’m interested to know why the car’s sensors didn’t detect the potential hazard in advance and the software slow the car down. Autonomous still safer than humans though.”

Uber’s self-driving car test programs have been shut down in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Toronto as the investigation continues. The program was suspended last year after another crash in Arizona, though that one did not yield any serious injuries.