On March 19 this year a city in Arizona witnessed a self-driving Uber which hit and killed a pedestrian at late night. The Uber vehicle reportedly headed northbound in Tempe when a woman walking outside of the crosswalk was struck who eventually died from her injuries after onlookers took her to the nearby hospital. Well, it turns out that the backup driver was distracted as she repeatedly looked down to her smartphone which was streaming an American talent show on Hulu in the run-up to the deadly collision.

Tempe police officers have been investigating on the matter since a very long time now. They revealed that she was enjoying NBC’s series The Voice on her phone until the time of the fatal accident in March. In response to a public records request, the Tempe Police Department released 318 pages of report on June 21 which stated the driver Rafaela Vasquez looked down for over 200 times without focussing on the road, glancing up just for few seconds before the car hit 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg who was crossing the street.

Watch video of Uber self-driving car accident in Arizona. 

The report records that Police officials collected the data from Hulu, an online service that streams television shows and movies. It revealed that Vasquez’s account was playing the American talent show for about 42 minutes which concluded at 9:59 pm “coincides with the approximate time of the collision.” It is not clear what charges will be filed against Vasquez and the police submitted their findings to county prosecutors who will resolve the matter.  After the incident which took place in March, Uber announced that they are closing self-driving car operation in Arizona.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2018 06:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).