It was bound to happen some time… and it has. After having a sterling safety record over the past couple of years, one of Google’s self-driving cars has gotten into an accident that was actually its own fault. Google’s cars have previously been involved in traffic accidents but all of those have been the fault of human drivers in other cars. Now, as AutoBlog reports, one of Google’s cars recently crashed into a bus after it misjudged whether an oncoming bus would slow down and allow it to change lanes.
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Thankfully, no one was hurt in the accident, which was very minor. And given that Google’s self-driving car software is still a work in progress, it’s not surprising that it would fail at some point during the testing process.
“No matter what the response, it was always going to be difficult to avoid this kind of incident,” writes AutoBlog. “Until self-driving cars can anticipate every possible road hazard, there’s always a chance that they’ll either be confused or make choices with unexpected (and sometimes unfortunate) consequences. However, the hope at this early stage isn’t to achieve a flawless track record. Instead, it’s to show that self-driving cars can be safer overall than their human-piloted counterparts.”
