“Google Inc. revealed Monday that its self-driving cars have been in 11 minor traffic accidents since it began experimenting with the technology six years ago,” Justin Pritchard reports for The Associated Press.
“The company released the number after The Associated Press reported that Google had notified California of three collisions involving its self-driving cars since September, when reporting all accidents became a legal requirement as part of the permits for the tests on public roads,” Pritchard reports. “The director of Google’s self-driving car project wrote in a web post that all 11 accidents were minor — ‘light damage, no injuries’ — and happened over 1.7 million miles of testing, including nearly 1 million miles in self-driving mode.”
“‘Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,’ wrote Google’s Chris Urmson,” Pritchard reports. “Google has not made public any records, so both enthusiasts and critics of the emerging technology have only the company’s word on what happened. The California Department of Motor Vehicles said it could not release details from accident reports. This lack of transparency troubles critics who want the public to be able to monitor the rollout of a technology that its own developers acknowledge remains imperfect.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Seems like a pretty good record, actually.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]