Hyperdrive
Sensor Supplier to Self-Driving Uber Defends Tech After Fatality
- Velodyne president says its lidar system didn’t cause crash
- Company ‘as baffled as anyone else,’ says lidar sees in dark
Uber Autonomous Accident Video
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A top executive for the maker of sensors used on the self-driving car that struck and killed a woman in Arizona this week said she’s “baffled” as to why the tech-outfitted vehicle failed to recognize a pedestrian crossing the street and hit the brakes.
Marta Thoma Hall, president of Velodyne Lidar Inc., maker of the special laser radar that helps an autonomous car “see” its surroundings, said the company doesn’t believe its technology failed. But she’s surprised the car didn’t detect 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg as she pushed her bike across a road in Tempe, Arizona, around 10 p.m. on Sunday.