Oh, without really much doubt, Uber modified the picture. Some person on reddit went out there and took a picture with their phone camera a few days afterwards. The Uber image is pretty clearly modified to seem like the woman 'came out of nowhere' (in terms of bit-depth).

https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/869olw/hdr...

An HDR picture requires, among other things, sufficient stability and time to capture all of the light, shades, tones, etc.

It's more likely that the sensors in the Uber setup are set for fast processing, i.e., less light per frame, rather than for visual fidelity, i.e., more light per frame. After all, faster processing is more important to a vehicle traveling 60 mph than sharp borders. If the shutter time is set low enough, you would get something similar to what Uber released even on a DSLR.

Also, as others have pointed out the Uber video was from a dashcam. The point of the dashcam was to record events in the event of an accident, not be a high-fidelity visual record.

Still, that means they put out their most favorable image, one where the woman just appears from the inky darkness, not the ones that the car was actually 'seeing'. If anything, this further demonizes Uber (past Greyball, the rampant sexual harassment, and the other crumminess)

A HDR still and a normal video are going to look very different, especially when you consider the video was taking from a moving car. It proves that Uber's footage was of low quality, but not that it was modified.

A single image is always going to be a poor way of judging the light levels, because the exposure (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) can make it look drastically different.