The California DMV has released the reports for a full year’s worth of self-driving car accidents. From the accounts in the paperwork none of the eight accidents involving Google’s cars can be blamed on autonomous technology. In fact, six out of eight of the accidents were drivers rear-ending one of the company’s retrofitted Lexus RX450h SUVs, half of those while the robotic vehicle was stationary. It’s worth noting that all the accounts come from Google, which is required by law to file documents within ten days of a collision.
Google began publishing accident reports (with the exact language as used in the DMV paperwork) in May of this year, so the events detailed by the DMV are all known. Only one other company, Delphi Automotive, has had a car involved in an accident in the past year, and that was while the vehicle was being driven by a handler, rather than a machine. However, there are no less than ten companies testing self-driving vehicles in the state, and Apple is at least considering entering the fray. The DMV’s willingness to publish full reports means that Apple and any other company testing vehicles needs to be prepared for Google-like public transparency while working on their self-driving projects.
Via: Mark Harris (Twitter)
Source: California DMV