Report: Uber ‘Not Criminally Liable’ for Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash

Uber is reportedly “not criminally liable” for a self-driving car crash in 2018, which killed a pedestrian after the car’s transgender felon “back-up driver” was watching a television show on a phone instead of paying attention to the road.

According to Reuters, prosecutors ruled that Uber “is not criminally liable” for the fatal crash, and that the car’s transgender back-up driver, convicted felon Rafaela Vasquez, “should be referred to the Tempe police for additional investigation.”

The woman who was hit by the car died from her injuries in a local hospital, which prompted the company’s self-driving car tests to be halted.

Vasquez was found to have been streaming The Voice on Hulu from her phone instead of focusing on the road just before the crash.

According to the Daily Mail, Vasquez “had two felony convictions when he was hired by Uber for its self-driving car trials in the Phoenix, Arizona, area.”

“Her January 2001 conviction for attempted armed robbery led to a five-year sentence of which she served more than four years, being freed in November 2004. Vasquez attempted to rob a Blockbuster video store with an imitation firearm,” reported the Mail. “At the same time, Vasquez was convicted of unsworn falsification committed in 1999, meaning she made a false statement to a public officials, and received a concurrent one year sentence.”