NTSB Report Reveals Uber Disabled Emergency Braking in Fatal Self-Driving Crash
The NTSB reveals that Uber's self-driving system detects collisions but cannot apply emergency brakes, relying instead on human drivers who receive no alerts.
The NTSB releases preliminary findings regarding the fatal March crash involving an Uber self-driving vehicle, highlighting a critical flaw in the vehicle's design. According to the report, the self-driving system determines that emergency braking is required just 1.3 seconds before impact, but the car lacks the ability to act on this detection.
Uber intentionally disables the Volvo XC90's built-in collision avoidance and automatic emergency braking systems when the computer is in control to prevent erratic behavior from competing systems. Surprisingly, Uber's own self-driving software does not include a replacement emergency braking feature, leaving the vehicle unable to stop itself even when it recognizes an imminent collision.
The system relies entirely on the human operator to intervene, yet it does not alert the driver when it detects an object and needs to stop. With only 1.3 seconds between the system's realization and the crash, human reaction time makes intervention nearly impossible, prompting Uber to launch an internal safety review and hire a former NTSB chair as an advisor.