First pedestrian death from self-driving car in US
San Francisco: Video of the first self-driving car crash that killed a pedestrian showed how the autonomous Uber failed to slow down as it fatally hit a 49-year-old woman walking her bike across the street.
The newly released footage of the collision that killed Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona, on Sunday night has raised fresh questions about why the self-driving car did not stop when a human entered its path and has sparked scrutiny of regulations in the state, which has encouraged testing of the autonomous technology.
“It’s just awful,” Tina Marie Herzberg White, a stepdaughter of the victim, told the Guardian on Wednesday. “There should be a criminal case.”
Police have released two videos of the case – one outside and one showing the interior of the Volvo SUV. The four-second exterior video showed the car driving down a somewhat dark and largely empty street as it collided into the woman walking directly in its path.
The 14-second video inside the car showed the operator, identified by police as Rafaela Vasquez, 44, appearing to look at something inside the vehicle and not at the road at the time of the collision. She alternated between looking down and looking forward and appeared shocked at the last minute just as the car failed to stop.
Local prosecutors will decide whether criminal charges are warranted. Some have argued that under new rules issued by Arizona’s governor, a strong proponent of the technology, a company like Uber could possibly be criminally liable if an autonomous car negligently killed someone. But police chief Sylvia Moir suggested in an interview that she believed Uber wasn’t at fault.
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SC stays Telangana HC order granting one-week transit anticipatory bail to Pawan Khera
New Delhi (PTI): In a setback to Congress leader Pawan Khera, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Telangana High Court order granting him one-week transit anticipatory bail in a case registered for levelling allegations against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife.
A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar issued notice to Khera and others seeking their responses on the plea filed by the Assam government challenging the Telangana High Court order.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, told the bench that Khera moving Telangana High Court for bail in a case registered in Assam was a "complete abuse of process" and this would be a case of "forum choosing".
The bench, while issuing notice on the plea, said that operation of the high court order would remain stayed.
It posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
On April 10, the high court granted one-week transit anticipatory bail to Khera with certain conditions and gave him a week to file an application before the court concerned.
The Congress leader had, on April 5, in a press conference alleged that Assam CM's wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, has multiple passports and foreign property, which were not declared in the chief minister's election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls in that state.
The Sarmas had rejected the allegations as false and fabricated.
The case against Khera was registered at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under several sections of the BNS sections, including 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 35 (Right of private defence of the body and of property) and 318 (cheating).
