Google Self-Driving Car in First Injury Accident

Google Self-Driving Car in First Injury Accident

LOS ANGELES, July 17 (UPI) — Google employees who were passengers in the company’s self-driving car reported minor injuries after the vehicle was in a rear-end collision while stopped in traffic, the company revealed Thursday.

The Lexus SUV equipped with the tech giant’s self-driving technology, sensors and cameras had slowed to a stop at a green light in response to traffic in an intersection in Google’s home town of Mountain View, Calif. on July 1. Another car coming from behind failed to brake at all, slamming into the back of the Google vehicle at 17 mph, the company said.

“Thankfully, everyone in both vehicles was okay, except for a bit of minor whiplash, and a few scrapes on our bumper. The other vehicle wasn’t so lucky; its entire front bumper fell off,” the head of Google’s self-driving car program, Chris Urmson, wrote in a blog post. .

Google’s self-driving cars logged some 1.1 million miles since they hit the pavement in 2009, the company reported.

“Other drivers have hit us 14 times since the start of our project in 2009 (including 11 rear-enders), and not once has the self-driving car been the cause of the collision,” Urmson wrote. “Instead, the clear theme is human error and inattention. We’ll take all this as a signal that we’re starting to compare favorably with human drivers.”

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