Google accepts some blame for self-driving crash

In this photo taken Wednesday, May 14, 2014, a row of Google self-driving cars are shown outside the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

If it is determined Google’s auto was at fault over this crash it will be the first time one of its driverless vehicles has caused an accident while in autonomous mode.

“From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future“, Google stated. No one was injured. The test driver and the vehicle thought the bus would slow or stop to let the auto continue, the document states. The company looks on the bright side of the incident, calling the crash “a tricky set of circumstances that’s helped us improve an important skill for navigating similar roads”. Now it seems a auto itself was at least partly to blame for a small accident in Silicon Valley, by making a prediction not unlike one a human driver would make.

State law requires operators testing autonomous vehicles to notify the DMV within 10 days of any collision. To date, having traveled almost 1.5 million miles in autonomous mode, this accident is believed to be the first caused by an autonomous vehicle for Alphabet Inc.’s X division that runs self-driving cars.

After several vehicles passed, the self-driving auto eased back into the center lane believing an approaching transit bus would stop, Google said. It occurred when the auto was attempting to maneuver into the center lane, and assumed that an oncoming bus would slow down in order to give it room to change lanes.

The DMV posted an incident report on its website on Monday.

One of its drivers-side sensors also was damaged.

Self-driving cars have been seen as a potentially significant new part of Google’s business, though so far the company does not sell its software or manufacturer cars for consumers. Up to this point, however, Google says its autonomous vehicles have never been at fault in any of them.

A critic of Google’s self-driving vehicle efforts said the collision shows the tech giant should be kept from taking onto public streets self-driving prototypes it built without a steering wheel or pedals. But Urmson said that even a single self-driving auto is improving conditions for all.