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posted by LaminatorX on Monday May 11 2015, @06:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the better-mousetrap dept.

According to an article by the AP - via an ad-free site several of the self driving cars licensed to drive in California have been involved in accidents.

Most are slow speed accidents, apparently with no injuries.

Four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars now rolling around California have gotten into accidents since September, when the state began issuing permits for companies to test them on public roads. Two accidents happened while the cars were in control; in the other two, the person who still must be behind the wheel was driving, a person familiar with the accident reports told The Associated Press.

Three involved Lexus SUVs that Google Inc. outfitted with sensors and computing power in its aggressive effort to develop "autonomous driving," a goal the tech giant shares with traditional automakers. The parts supplier Delphi Automotive had the other accident with one of its two test vehicles. Google and Delphi said their cars were not at fault in any accidents, which the companies said were minor.

Neither the companies involved, nor the State of California will release details of these accidents, which rankles some critics.

Four accidents involving these 50 cars in 8 months may seem a little high. Google's 23 cars have driven 140,000 miles in that time and racked up 3 accidents all by them selves. That is an order of magnitude higher than the National Transportation Safety Board's figures of 0.3 per 100,000 for non injury accidents. However the NTSB doesn't collect all fender bender accidents.

The article says that none of the other states that permit self driving cars have any record of accidents.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by vux984 on Monday May 11 2015, @10:18PM

    by vux984 (5045) on Monday May 11 2015, @10:18PM (#181674)

    And if the cars are involved in more accidents collectively than the national average; that correlation does suggest something is going on.

    To expand on this... one of the things drivers do for example, is establish eye contact with other drivers; at intersections etc. when you can do it that non-verbal communication conveys agreement about right-of-way or who is yielding to whom etc, increasing the safety of those maneuvers. Its not even remotely always possible (e.g. at night or in heavy rain and snow), etc but perhaps to the extent that it does happens reduces accidents. Perhaps interacting with vehicles that have no driver, means they never benefit from that. So while the cars themselves behave legally, they mis-cue other human drivers at a higher rate leading to slightly higher accident rates.

    *1 Do the self-driving have significant night driving records yet or in extreme weather?
    *2 It may also be that the cars not having a driver is itself distracting human drivers and leading to slightly higher accident rates by the humans around them.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2015, @10:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2015, @10:32PM (#181679)

    Wouldn't that mean it's ultimately the fault of the humans, and that it would be better if all the cars were driverless and didn't rely on subjective cues?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @07:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @07:20AM (#181839)

    The Mercedes concept car is supposed to have a feature (laser projector) to tell pedestrians that it's OK for them to walk in front of it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OSr8mxYED8#t=1m05s [youtube.com]

    So I'm sure they can figure something out.