(Image source: Jalopnik)
BY STEVEN SPARKMAN
ANCHOR AUSTIN KIM
You're watching multiosurce tech news analysis from Newsy.
Google’s self-driving car caused its first accident this week. The story came out when car blog Jalopnik obtained a photo of the crash with the Google car’s distinctive gadgetry. The blog went on to say:
“This is precisely why we're worried about self-driving cars. Perhaps the complicated set of lasers and imaging systems ... thought it was just looking at its shadow.”
The auto-piloted cars have traveled around the roadways of California for more than a year.
The cars use radar, cameras, Google maps, and GPS to navigate the streets and avoid collisions. Google reps say they’ve racked up over 160,000 miles, and until now-- the only incident was when another driver rear-ended the Google car. (Video source: ABC News)
While apparently no one was hurt in the latest accident, this wasn’t just a minor fender bender.
An eyewitness told an NBC affiliate -- Google’s Prius rear-ended another Prius, which hit a Honda Accord, which hit another Accord, which hit another Prius. (Image source: Jalopnik)
So that’s two Accords and three Prii in one wreck, for those of you keeping score. Google responded to the report by saying their auto-car was human-driven at the time. But bloggers are skeptical. A writer for Ubergizmo points out -- Google has good reason to protect its reputation.
“...we’ll just have to take Google’s word for it. The car has a bunch of sensors that record everything, so someone knows. But could it be just a cover up story to keep the Google vehicle’s track record blemish-free? After all, an accident would put the reputation of the whole project at stake...”
But a writer for Mashable says -- even if it is the car’s fault, one accident isn’t going to change anything. Google’s cars don’t have to be perfect -- just better than humans.
“There were 10.2 million traffic accidents in the U.S. in 2008, which results in 39,000 deaths. That’s 17.9 people per 100,000 licensed drivers. If Google self-driving cars can beat those statistics, they could actually prevent more accidents than they create.”
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