Google self-driving car involved in its ‘worst crash yet’ – but robot vehicle not at fault

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox

Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

A Google self-driving car has had its worst crash yet, after a driver ploughed into the side of one.

But the crash was not the fault of the car itself, but rather happened when a driver ran through a red light and hit the side door of the Lexus car.

The crash left the vehicle with beaten up side doors and forced its airbags to be deployed. Nobody was injured in the crash but it meant that the vehicle had to be towed away.

The car had been in its self-driving mode, but had somebody behind the wheel as is required. The car put its own brakes on when it saw a car crossing a red light, and the driver did the same – but the car didn’t stop in time to avoid colliding with the other car.

Though Google’s crashes do tend to generate far more publicity, they are according to the company’s own data much more rare than crashes between human-driven vehicles. The company’s cars have done more than 2 million miles of autonomous driving, and have only been involved in about 25 vehicles.

And when they do happen, they tend to be the fault of humans in other cars rather than the self-driving vehicles. Only one of those 25 was the fault of the car itself, when it crashed into the bus – but otherwise it tends to be human drivers’ mistakes.

That was what happened this time around, according to a Google spokesperson.

“Our light was green for at least six seconds before our car entered the intersection,” a spokesperson told 9to5google. “Thousands of crashes happen everyday on US roads, and red-light running is the leading cause of urban crashes in the US.

“Human error plays a role in 94% of these crashes, which is why we’re developing fully self-driving technology to make our roads safer.”