Well , it finally happened . One of Google ’s autonomous vehicle might have caused a minor fender - bender . ( Luckily , it look nobody was hurt . ) And guess what — it ’s probably go to happen again . And that ’s fine .
In a California DMV reportdiscovered by Mark Harris , one of Google ’s autonomous Lexus cars was break off at a Mountain View crossway on February 14 when it needed to maneuver around sandbags lay in the right - deal lane . The cable car put on — as a human machine driver might have — that as it nudge back into dealings , a slowing urban center bus was allowing the machine to merge . It was n’t , and the railcar struck the bus .
And the 1st in which Google is n’t saying that it ’s not at fault . Lexus drove into a urban center autobus while vary lanepic.twitter.com/nYl0u8D24k
— Mark Harris 🇺 🇦 ( @meharris)February 29 , 2016
allot to the DMV study , Google ’s car “ suffer physical structure damage to the left front fender , the left over front wheel and one of its driver’s - side sensor . ” No injury were reported .
This is exactly how Google istrying to instruct its cars to think more like humans . Google ’s explanation of the incident in itsmonthly reportwill be out tomorrow , but here ’s what the department say about the crash in acopy yield to The Vergethis morning :
Our test driver , who had been watching the bus in the mirror , also gestate the coach to slow or arrest . And we can imagine the double-decker equipment driver assumed we were croak to stay put . regrettably , all these assumptions led us to the same position in the lane at the same prison term . This eccentric of mistaking happens between human number one wood on the road every day .
This is a classic instance of the negotiation that ’s a normal part of driving – we ’re all trying to omen each other ’s movements . In this casing , we clearly abide some responsibility , because if our car had n’t moved there would n’t have been a hit . That said , our test driver believe the motorbus was going to slow or break off to allow us to merge into the traffic , and that there would be sufficient blank to do that .
Urmson also fielded several questions from audience members this morning who were intelligibly disquieted about golem drivers pullulate the streets ( include one person who ask about the theoretical “ how many child would you kill ” honorable dilemma recognise as theTrolley Problem ) . While the chances of this particular situation happening is exceedingly rare , said Urmson , which “ reduces the chances of that honourable quandary to almost nothing , ” in fact , there is a hierarchy . “ We try on hardest to avoid unprotected route users , ” he read , like footer and bicyclists , follow by move objects on the road , adopt by static objects .
One might make the argument that the only room autonomous vehicles can in truth be good is if every single auto ( and metropolis motorcoach ) on the route is ego - driving . But Urmson read that even a single ego - driving gondola is ameliorate precondition for all . “ throw one of them on the road constitute that person safe and makes everyone around them safe . ”
[ The Vergeand @meharris ]
CitiesGoogleSelf - driving carstransportation
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