Google’s autonomous cars have, for the first, been implicated in an accident more serious than a simple fender-bender.
While autonomous cars have so far proven themselves to be remarkably safe, the other people-powered cars on the road aren’t quite as good. Google once again learned this fact after one of its autonomous vehicles was struck from behind by a distracted driver.
Unfortunately, this was Google’s first accident that resulted in humans actually getting hurt, with the three passengers of the car being taken to the hospital and treated for minor whiplash.
As you can see in the video above, what happened was that an intersection was full, and despite the light being green, a number of vehicles, including Google’s, stopped before entering the intersection. Unfortunately, the driver behind the Google car did not notice this and slammed into the autonomous vehicle from behind.
This isn’t the first time that Google’s self-driving cars have been bumped by careless humans. Not long ago the company reported to California’s DMV that it had been involved in 14 minor accidents, most due to inattentive homo sapiens.
Source: Chris Urmson (Medium)