The Uber operator sitting in a self-driving car that struck and killed a woman pedestrian in Arizona on Sunday reportedly was a felon who had served time in prison for attempted armed robbery.
Rafaela Vasquez, 44, was behind the wheel of the Uber vehicle going about 40 mph in autonomous mode when it hit Elaine Herzberg, 49, while she walked her bike across a street outside the crosswalk in Tempe at about 10 p.m., the Arizona Republic reported.
Tempe Police Sgt. Ronald Elcock told the Republic it didn’t appear the vehicle attempted to slow down when it came upon Herzberg.
The Republic said Vasquez had records from the Arizona Department of Corrections, under a different legal name, showing she had served three years and 10 months in a state prison for convictions on attempted armed robbery and unsworn falsification.
She was released from prison in 2005, the Republic said.
The Denver Post reported in November that Colorado officials penalized Uber $8.9 million for allowing 57 people with past criminal or motor vehicle offenses to drive for the company, according to the state's Public Utility Commission.
The Colorado PUC said at the time that Uber should have disqualified those drivers, who had issues ranging from felony convictions to driving under the influence and reckless driving, the Post reported. The commission stated that in a handful of cases, drivers were working with revoked, suspended or canceled licenses, the Post noted.
"We have determined that Uber had background-check information that should have disqualified these drivers under the law, but they were allowed to drive anyway," Colorado PUC director Doug Dean said in a statement, per the Post. "These actions put the safety of passengers in extreme jeopardy."
The Republic said Uber has more than 18,000 contract drivers and 1,000 employees in Arizona, with most staffers at the downtown Phoenix operations center. The Republic said nearly 300 people worked in the company's self-driving operations in Tempe as of November 2017.
Uber has been using autonomous vehicles to shuttle Uber passengers in parts of Tempe and Scottsdale, the Republic said.
Riders who are picked up by the self-driving cars likely recognize them from the presence of the exterior sensors, the Republic said.
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