None of the unmanned vehicles had an accident due to their own fault

    Of 50 unmanned vehicles that ply on the roads of California since September of last year, an accident were only four of them. Three Lexus SUVs are owned by Google, the fourth car was developed by Delphi, an automotive company. The search giant did not disclose details of the incidents with their cars, but Delphi speaker Kristen Kinley told how it was. During a left turn, another car crashed into the side of the Audi SQ5, resulting in moderate damage to both cars, which were driving at that time. Both Google and Delphi say that all 4 accidents that occurred with their unmanned vehicles occurred through the fault of other drivers.

    Permission to test robocars in "combat conditions" was issued at the end of September last year by Google, Mercedes and Audi, and Delphi joined them a little later. An indispensable condition for official authorization was the condition that a driver engineer should be in the car cab, who should take over in the event of an emergency. Any incidents during testing should be reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which refuses to comment on any information on this subject. However, a source in the agency, on condition of anonymity, told the New York Times that in two out of four cases of traffic accidents, the cars were in autonomous control at a speed of about 10 mph (about 16 km / h).

    Google, with its reputation as a high-tech company, is being heard by many critics. For example, the head of the Consumer Watchdog organization, journalist and lawyer John Simpson, who calls himself a consumer advocate in the information age, believes that Google’s intention to produce a robocar without a steering wheel and pedals is a serious security challenge not only for the owner of such a machine, but also for many the people around him. (Simpson became famous after he filed a lawsuit against Google, protesting against the automatic scanning of Gmail mail; he also said that the US Congress should protect Americans from too close attention of Google Glass owners).

    In response, the cornerstone of unmanned vehicles is called security, which is ensured by a large number of built-in cameras, radars and sensors and related software. Together, they can provide such a speed of reaction to problems that a person is simply incapable of.

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