It was a mild day in September 1899 when Dr David Orr Edson, son of former New York City mayor Franklin Edson, approached the corner of West 74th Street and Central Park West in an electric taxicab. As a southbound trolley car met the cab, sixty-nine-year-old real estate dealer Henry H. Bliss alighted, turning briefly to help a companion climb onto the street. In that moment, the taxicab hit the gentleman and ran him over, causing injuries from which he could not recover. Mr Bliss is remembered in a plaque on that corner as the first motor vehicle fatality in the history of the United States.
On another mild evening 119 years later, in March 2018, a self-driving test vehicle travelled north in autonomous mode along Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. The car was fitted with radar and LiDAR, but neither these nor a human backup driver were able to identify and avoid the
