Google Robomobile crashed into a bus in California

It was such a car that became a participant in an accident (Photo: Mark Wilson | Getty Images)

Today it became known that Google’s robotic car collided with a bus on the road. This accident could be the first accident caused by a Google robotic car (until now, accidents involving smart corporations of the corporation have occurred, but other drivers and vehicles were usually responsible for the accidents).

The accident occurred on February 14 in Mountain View , California, but it became known about it only now. Google immediately reported the issue to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Until the accident, the car moved at a speed of 3 km / h, the bus speed reached 23 km / h. There are no injuries.

The report does not clearly indicate the originator of the accident. Nevertheless, Google indicates that the robomobile tried to avoid some obstacles on the road, and during one of the maneuvers, the car collided with a bus.

The “backup" driver, who was at that time in the robomobile, thought that the bus would give way to the car, and did nothing to prevent collisions. If it is proved that a smart car is the cause of the accident, this will be the first case of an accident caused by a car with an automatic Google control system.

Today, officials should discuss what happened with the corporation to understand what went wrong.

Now Google is testing in California about two dozen Lexus SUVs equipped with various sensors and cameras.

Accidents involving Google cars have already happened, and more than once (approximately 12 cases). But in all previous accidents, the culprit of the incident was other cars and drivers, not the robomobiles themselves. Now Google has already recognized partial liability for the accident.

The company's engineers have already changed the software of the robomobiles so that the cars “understand” - the probability that the bus will miss the robomobile or stop is not too high, this probability is lower than in the case of other vehicles.