A driver turns left across multiple lanes at an intersection. Traffic obscures his or her view. An oncoming car approaches unseen. A collision occurs.
That?s a scenario that?s all too common among the estimated 6.3 million traffic crashes that take place each year on U.S. roads, and it?s the same one that resulted in a collision last week that involved one of Uber?s self-driving vehicles in Tempe, Arizona.
More details from the incident emerged Wednesday, when the Tempe Police Department released the full crash report. Consistent with preliminary findings, the report said a human driver was to blame for the four-car crash.
According to police, Alexandra S. Cole drove her 2008 Honda CR-V northbound on South McClintock Drive, a main arterial road in the city. She turned left at the intersection of East Don Carlos Avenue and struck the Uber autonomous vehicle, a specially equipped 2017 Volvo XC90 SUV, which had been traveling through the intersection in the far right of three southbound lanes.
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?There was no time to react, as there was a blind spot created by the line of traffic.? ? Patrick R. Murphy, Uber

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Cole plowed into the left side of the XC90, which subsequently struck a traffic-signal pole and two more vehicles before coming to rest on its right side. She was cited for failure to yield.
?As far as I could tell, the third lane had no one coming in it, so I was clear to make my turn,? Cole wrote in the report. ?Right as I got to the middle lane about to cross the ...