The backup driver in the 1st death by a fully autonomous car pleads guilty to endangerment

The backup Uber driver involved in the first death involving a fully autonomous vehicle has pleaded guilty to endangerment. Authorities say Rafaela Vasquez was streaming a TV show and looking down in the moments before Uber’s Volvo XC-90 SUV struck a woman who was crossing a darkened street in suburban Phoenix in March 2018. Forty-nine year old Elaine Herzberg was killed. A judge on Friday sentenced Vasquez to three years of supervised probation as part of a plea agreement. Vasquez told police Herzberg “came out of nowhere” and that she didn’t see Herzberg before the collision. She had been charged with negligent homicide.